Uruguay, globalisation and coherence: an open letter to Claudio Martini

A letter from Romeo Ramacciotti, Lucca 

After taking part in World Social Forum 3 at Porto Alegre last month, Claudio Martini, the president of  the Tuscany Regional Council, visited Uruguay together with fifteen business men from Tuscany. He was met by Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle and representatives from local authorities and economic organisations.

These meetings are reported in an article that appeared in [the Tuscan daily newspaper] Il Tirreno on January 28 2003. It carries the title “Uruguay needs help” and bears Martini’s own signature. In the article Martini blames globalisation and lack of regulations for the collapse of agricultural product prices and the consequent economic crisis in Uruguay.

In the same article President Batlle is quoted as saying: “Martini, do you want to know what our biggest problem is today? Well let me tell you. We are an agricultural country and our standard produce is meat, milk, cheese and wool. Until last year our meat producers were paid US$ 2,200 per ton whereas today they receive only US$ 1,400”. Further on in the same article Batlle says: “Our producers are paid 11 US cents a litre for milk, $1.4 a kilo for meat and 90 cents a kilo for wool. Despite this, our products are no longer competitive, so much so that milk, cheese and butter products come to Latin America from Europe, thus reducing our producers to hardship.”

In another article, published by the Corriere della Sera on January 12 2003, Gianni Riotta writes: “ ‘The European Union grants daily subsidies of two euros and 34 cents for every head of cattle in the old continent, which is more than most inhabitants of Subsaharan Africa have to live on’, former Swedish premier Carl Bildt observes sternly.”

Articles 1 and 3 of the World Trade Agreement, which established the WTO [World Trade Organisation] and includes GATT Uruguay 1994 [General agreement on Tariffs and Trade], represent the heart of the agreement insofar as they uphold the principle of non-discrimination, the basis for all subsequent GATT and WTO agreements. This principle is stated in two “rules”: a) the obligation to treat goods and services from any member country in the same way, so that if special conditions are applied to goods from one country then those same conditions must be applied to the same goods from others; and b) the obligation for every nation to apply the same conditions to goods imported from other countries as are applied to “similar” domestically produced goods.

President Martini, your article is devoid of coherence. You state that “Uruguay needs help”. Let me remind you that Uruguay gained its independence after centuries of colonisation by us Europeans. Those who underwent colonisation know what this means and anyone who has doubts on the matter should get acquainted with the facts.

Your statement that “Uruguay needs help” is incorrect on two counts. Firstly, the people of Uruguay were for centuries forcibly obliged to carry out the role of suppliers of both their country’s natural resources and the fruits of their own labour. So I do not see why we should set ourselves up as suppliers of help to those whom we have so far plundered – unless, of course, it takes place on an equal footing and together with our definitive renunciation of the role of colonisers and full respect for the dignity of Uruguay.

Secondly, President Batlle has made no explicit request for help but has denounced a situation created by us Europeans, as is expressly stated in the Tirreno article. Given that Uruguay’s highest authority, President Jorge Batlle, has made no request for help, you, President Martini, must expressly provide the names of any persons who did make such a request and with what authority they did so. This would lend some coherence to the title of your article.  

Note: This letter, originally in Italian, was published by JUST Response on February 25 2003.

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