Thailand, Indonesia, and Chile have all recently signed new free trade agreements (FTAs) with Japan. Critics say this move allows Japan to privatise other countries’ natural resources for the benefit of Japanese corporations, rather than result into equitable partnerships.

With its recent free trade agreement (FTA) deals signed with Thailand, Chile, and Indonesia, Japan has joined the big league in the privatisation of other countries’ biological diversity in favour of Japanese corporations, according to GRAIN, an international nongovernment organisation based in Spain committed to promoting the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity.
 
“Biopirate”

According to GRAIN, Japan has been accused before of biopiracy, where Japanese companies are able to secure legal rights over biodiversity in other countries. With its recent FTAs with developing countries, however, it made its position on intellectual property over life part of the agreement.

“Through its FTAs…the Japanese government has been cajoling other countries to change their laws so that they provide [Japanese] corporations with greater freedom to operate and have stronger control over their (other countries’) assets,” the GRAIN article said.

Early this year, Japan has also signed an FTA with Thailand, which caused a major national dispute, as the agreement specified that Japanese corporations be given rights to patent even naturally occurring microorganisms.

Thai NGOs had voiced their protests against the agreement, saying that Japan would benefit from the country’s microorganism variety, developing them for use in their businesses. They added that Thailand’s microorganism assets would belong to Japan once patent registrations were approved.

Despite protests, however, the deal pushed through in April.

The Japan-Chile and Japan-Indonesia FTAs followed in August, with both countries committing to allow Japanese companies to have intellectual property rights over its seeds, medicinal plants, microorganisms, and even traditional knowledge.

Top ten seed exporter

Japan’s increasing demands to have control over the biological resources of its partner countries brought it to the top ten of the world’s largest seed exporter, selling USD 401 million in 2006 alone. Its FTAs this year prohibit farmers from saving or sharing “protected” seed varieties, thereby turning approximately 165 million Indonesian farmers into paying customers. Worse, farmers who violate these agreements are made criminally liable.

“It is not farmers who should be criminalised for saving seeds, but these corporations for forcing through such terrible laws,” the GRAIN article stated.

Toxic waste dumping

Japan’s privatisation of its partner countries’ natural resources is not the only issue in the trade agreements it sealed this year. Another provision in the agreement could have serious ramification on the environment.

According to Thai NGOs, their country’s FTA with Japan could give Japanese companies the right to dump their industrial wastes in Thailand, including the import of used parts, used industrial goods, and toxic waste.

“Why did the Japanese list those products (used tyres, used lead-acid batteries, and used electricity accumulators) when they know they are forbidden? This could be a channel for their import,” Sukran Rojanapaiwong, a committee member of the Campaign for Alternative Industry Network in Thailand, said.
 
She pointed out that Thailand was inefficient in managing or destroying such waste. “We can destroy only 50 percent of the waste in our own country. What will happen if we have to manage even more?” she added.

For Japan, FTAs offer a means of strengthening partnerships with other countries. However, developing countries believe otherwise.

Sources:
“Japan digs its claws into biodiversity through FTAs” from GRAIN, posted on August 2007, <http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=29>. 
“NGOs fear there’s a hidden agenda in Japan FTA” from bilaterals.org, posted on February 17, 2007, <http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=7173>. 

The world’s top 10 seed companies (2006)

Source: GRAIN, posted on August 2007, <http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=29>.