4) PENGAJARAN DARI BAHANA PERJANJIAN CPTPP VIETNAM

Does CPTPP help Vietnamese farmers get out of poverty?Nguyen Quang DuyTo BBC from Melbourne, Australia
The rice market is therefore still the same as it was during the subsidy period, with state-owned enterprises monopolizing purchasing and exporting.The rice market is still the same as it was during the subsidy period, state-owned enterprises monopolized the purchase and export
To know if the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has helped 23 million farmers, especially 15 million rice farmers in Vietnam, out of poverty, we need to understand what it is. make them poor.
Why are farmers poor?The devaluation of the currency makes exports cheaper and more abundant, earning more foreign currency, but the reduction in the price of rice and food exports reduces the income of farmers.
Signing CPTPP: What benefits does Vietnam have?VN: 'Land problems deprive farmers of opportunities'A depreciation of the currency increases the price of fertilizers, fuels, pesticides, imported machinery, increases the cost of rice and food exports, and further reduces the profits farmers can earn.
The Thai government subsidizes rice prices by buying rice from farmers, who then sell it to export companies.
During the 2018-19 crop, the Thai government provided about $3 billion to the rice industry, including loans and direct subsidies to farmers, if they agreed to keep the rice in storage and sell it when it was approved. price.
Subsidies are usually set at 40 to 50% above the global market price.
China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and rice importing countries protect domestic rice production by taxing and regulating the amount of rice that is imported.
On July 1, 2018, China adjusted the rice import tax rate from 40% to 50%.
From the figures of Thailand and China sponsoring farmers, it is estimated that Vietnamese farmers have sacrificed up to 50% of their profits due to the export-based growth strategy, but Vietnamese farmers are not compensated or patronized.
The Vietnam Food Association is an organization established by Hanoi with the aim of managing the rice market and ensuring the amount of rice exported as planned.
This association represents a number of state-owned enterprises, meeting the regulations on rice export business that must have a large rice storage, a large rice mill and have a lot of capital.
The rice market is therefore still the same as it was during the subsidy period, with state-owned enterprises monopolizing purchasing and exporting.
State-owned enterprises often sign contracts with rice prices cheaper than the market price, sometimes up to 100 USD cheaper than the price of Thai rice.
Vietnamese farmers have few fields, no capital to keep rice, no place to store rice when it is cheap, little information about prices and loss of bargaining power, so they are forced to sell by state enterprises at the prices set by the state. Remaining profit is very low.
On average, rice farmers in the Mekong Delta earn no more than $100 per month, 2.7 times lower than Thai rice farmers and 1.5 times lower than Indonesia and the Philippines.CPTPP signed in Santiago, Chile on March 8, 2018
The Farmers Union is helpless because…Interviewed by VnEconomy on January 23, 2016 at the 12th Communist Party Congress, Chairman of the Farmers' Association Nguyen Quoc Cuong replied verbatim as follows:
"...Measures to help farmers, I say a specific thing is to subsidize or buy temporary storage, farmers get nothing, businesses get all, in the middle they eat everything.
The State has a policy that aims to help farmers, which is to give farmers a 30% profit. When the price drops, they buy it for temporary storage, but all that profit goes to the business's pocket, which has been proven very clearly, the help does not reach the farmers."
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong continued to say:
"The Farmers' Union has no economic power, because it's not a corporation, just a union, so the highest recommendation is at the National Party Congress. Since the Party Congress is the highest, I have to make it. petition here, although it has been proposed many times to the Government, the Central Committee and the National Assembly."
Chairman of the Farmers' Association Nguyen Quoc Cuong answered quite clearly that 23 million farmers do not have economic strength and political power, so farmers are still poor.
Land ownership rightsUp to now, Vietnamese farmers have not yet enjoyed private ownership of land, including the right to use land, the right to benefit and the right to purchase and sell.
New 'weapon' helps Vietnamese farmers increase production
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With private property rights, people can buy more land, expand their businesses, become enthusiastic and boldly develop the rural economy, and invest in machinery and equipment to increase productivity and output.
Newly developed rural areas can attract investment in infrastructure, attract talents for rural development, and attract investment in light industry produced in the countryside...
With the development of rural areas, the life of farmers will be better, the gap between the rich and the poor between rural areas and urban areas will narrow, young people will not leave the city to earn a living, reducing the burden on urban areas. develop.
Losing private ownership of land and having no political power, farmers continuously lost land for industrial development and urban development. Losing land, farmers no longer have the means to grow crops and live.
Other factors such as upstream hydroelectric dams block the flow of alluvial water, causing flooding, saltwater intrusion, the abuse of well water for production and consumption, the exploitation of sand in the river, water and soil resources. polluted land… all affect the living environment and income of rural people.
Not only 23 million farmers, but nearly 70 million people live in rural areas because they are inhibited by the political system and cannot develop, so they are still poor.
The ratification of the CPTPP forces the Hanoi government to accept a trade union with 23 million members of farmers, but without "doing politics", it is difficult for farmers to escape poverty.
Vietnam has 23 million farmers out of nearly 70 million people living in rural areas
SunRice buys rice processing plant…As soon as Australia and Vietnam officially ratified the CPTPP, SunRice company also completed the acquisition of a rice processing factory in Dong Thap province, Vietnam.
SunRice was established in 1950 by the cooperation of rice farmers and was equitized in 1987.
With only about 1,500 farmers growing rice, rice production in Australia runs into the millions of tons annually and more than half is exported.
Australian rice is grown in a rotation of two years of growing rice, two years of growing grass for sheep, two years of growing wheat, then turning to rice.
As a result, the production is very high, averaging 10 tons/ha and is considered clean rice because it uses very little chemical fertilizers and very little pesticides.
With the exception of years of natural disasters, there is often a lack of assistance to agriculture in Australia from both the federal and state governments.
In the last three years, SunRice has bought US$200 million, about 5% of Vietnam's rice exports. SunRice's entry into the Vietnamese market has three notable points:
Firstly, breaking the monopoly position, creating competition in rice purchasing and exporting with state-owned enterprises.
It is too early to see if this and the CPTPP in general will help Vietnamese farmers.
Experience shows that innovation and globalization have not brought the expected benefits to the peasantry presented above.
Second, SunRice will be able to purchase clean rice with less chemical fertilizers and less pesticides, thus helping farmers to reduce chemical poisoning and reduce environmental pollution.
Third, any help to farmers from the government could be in violation of the terms of the CPTPP and could be sued by SunRice, so there is less to help farmers.
Vietnam will have to produce clean rice with less chemical fertilizers and less pesticides.

Vietnam will have to produce clean rice with less chemical fertilizers and less pesticidesPesticides are still widely used in Vietnamese agriculture
Union "doesn't do politics "
In the last midterm elections, President Trump and the Republican Party won in the agricultural states and rural areas, while the Democratic Party was supported in the cities and suburbs.
Both Republicans and Democrats have since then had to come up with policies on mass health, education, road development, etc., and even price subsidies to ensure that farmers' interests are not inferior to those of urban areas.
American farmers and farmer unions do not do politics, but they do have political power, by votes they force the two political parties to protect their interests and their families.
In the US unions are not the "backyard" of both Republicans and Democrats.
Each union regularly learns and mobilizes the parties that bring the most practical benefits to union members.
So just three decades ago rural voters and industrialists used to vote for the Democratic Party, but now vote the opposite.
It is also a bipartisan power struggle, but in Australia some of the major unions are the "backyard" of the Labor Party.
Meanwhile, farmers often vote for the National Party, often allied with the Liberal Party.
The unions as the "backyard" for the political party should be politicized, gradually weakened. Therefore, many unions, over the past three decades, have continuously reduced the number of members, reducing their political power to protect the practical interests of their members.
Australia's political system is manipulated by factions within the party, vying for power in just 11 years has changed prime minister six times and no prime minister has held a full three-year term.
In Vietnam, the Communist Party still holds a political monopoly, as the Chairman of the Farmers' Union Nguyen Quoc Cuong has made clear, although the Farmers' Union represents 23 million farmers, it has neither economic nor political power. so the peasants remained poor.
Therefore, if Vietnam joins the CPTPP or signs a Trade Agreement with the European Union but still has no political freedom, it is difficult for 23 million farmers and rural areas to escape poverty.
With freedom to vote, to stand for election, and to be politically free, only then will farmers, workers, and the urban poor have the opportunity to have their voices heard, and their interests to be recognized by political parties and the public. implementation guaranteed by the government, so that their lives are truly out of poverty.
The article presents the views of Mr. Nguyen Quang Duy from Melbourne, Australia .