[Robyn Williamson <robinet@aapt.net.au>]

New from GRAIN
27 August 2007
JAPAN DIGS ITS CLAWS INTO BIODIVERSITY THROUGH FTAS
Against the grain | August 2007

Available at http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=29

The Japanese government is increasingly using free trade agreements (FTAs) to
tighten corporate control over seeds and other forms of biodiversity that are
crucial to food, agriculture and medicine. Two such deals sealed this month
with Chile and Indonesia put Japan in the big league of nations using bilateral
deals to make seed-saving on the farm a thing of the past.

Until now, Europe and the US were the main economic powers pushing other
countries to revise their intellectual property laws to give private companies
patent or patent-like control over seeds and other forms of biodiversity
through FTAs. Japan has now joined that club. In a controversial FTA signed
earlier this year with Thailand, Japan insisted that the Thais cannot reject
patents just because they involve "naturally occurring" microorganisms. Two
weeks ago, Tokyo signed a deal with Chile obliging the South American state to
join UPOV, a group of countries following the same anti-farmer plant variety
property laws. Last week, a similar agreement was inked with Indonesia.

These laws give large transnationals - like Yokohama-based Sakata Seed
Corporation, which ranks among the top ten global seed companies - exclusive
ownership over the nuts and bolts that make food production and health care
possible. That means that farmers lose freedom to save seed from commercial
varieties. But this is no longer just a North-South affair, with industrial
nations like Japan pushing developing countries around. Home-grown agribusiness
conglomerates across Asia and Latin America also want a cut from the market.
After all, some 70% of the world's farmers save their seed. That is a lot of
people to convert into paying customers through strict property rules like
patents or UPOV regulations. And developing country governments are following
the money.

Now that Japan has set a precedent in getting these laws accepted under its FTAs
with Chile and Indonesia, farmers' organisations and social movements in other
countries negotiating bilateral trade deals with Tokyo should expect the same.
In the coming months, Japan will be fast-tracking FTAs with India, Viet Nam and
the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

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RELATED GRAIN MATERIALS

-- "Bilateral agreements imposing TRIPS-plus intellectual property rights on
biodiversity in developing countries", August 2007,
http://www.grain.org/rights/?id=68

-- "The end of farm-saved seed? Industry's wish list for the next revision of
UPOV", February 2007, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=202

-- "FTAs: Trading away traditional knowledge", in collaboration with Dr Silvia
Rodríguez Cervantes, March 2006, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=196

-- A few FTA related photos, http://www.grain.org/photos/?t=12


----- End forwarded message -----


CONTACT DETAILS:

Robyn Williamson
Education Team
PERMACULTURE SYDNEY WEST INC.
PDC, Urban Horticulturist
Local Seed Network Coordinator
NORTH WESTERN SYDNEY COMMUNITY SEED SAVERS
mobile:  0409 151 435
ph/fx:  (612) 9629 3560
http://www.seedsavers.net
http://www.communityfoods.org.au
http://www.communitygarden.org.au
http://www.bidjiwongcommunitynursery.org.au
http://www.permaculturesydneybasin.org.au