TRADE / THAI-JAPANESE AGREEMENT

NHRC says PM must be held responsibleACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont must be held responsible for any damaging repercussions from the Thai-Japanese free trade agreement he is to sign in Tokyo today, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Saneh Chamarik said yesterday.

"The NHRC has repeatedly warned the interim government about the adverse impacts of the pact, but they have never listened to us. So Gen Surayud must be accountable for what he has done," Mr Saneh said. The trade pact would lead to the exploitation of biological resources, which were a fundamental element of the sufficiency economy, he added.

Japanese civic groups have sent a petition to Gen Surayud in a last-ditch attempt to block the signing of the pact, also known as the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA). The National Coalition of Workers, Farmers and Consumers for Safe Food and Health, and the Japan Family Farmers Movement urged the Thai government to reopen negotiations with Japan and delete the clause about cutting tariffs on industrial waste from the agreement.
"This agreement will bring misery to people in both countries," the activists said in the letter, issued on Saturday.

A network of 14 Japanese environmental and citizen groups also petitioned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese foreign and environment ministers yesterday, asking them to remove the waste provisions from the agreement and end its policy on exporting waste in the name of recycling to developing countries.

A group of anti-JTEPA activists say they plan to protest at the Japanese embassy in Bangkok today.

Bangkok Post
Tuesday April 03, 2007