Anchalee Kongrut

Thai activists yesterday burned a placard bearing the World Trade Organisation's logo in Bangkok, expressing solidarity with anti-globalisation protesters as the world trade talks in Mexico went into their final day.

About 200 protesters representing trade unions, Aids activists, political campaigners and environmentalists who oppose the WTO's free trade policy gathered at the Port Authority of Thailand's Workers' Club yesterday. They shouted in unison, “Burn it. Burn it”, as some of them set the placard on fire.

The port authority is a state enterprise which will be privatised and listed.

Protesters stood in silence for Lee Kyung-hae, a Korean farmer who committed suicide in front of the conference hall in Cancun, Mexico, on the first day of the trade meeting. Kyung-hae carried a placard which read “WTO Kills Farmers,” before stabbing himself.

Pongpit Samranjit, director of Rural Reconstruction Alumni and Friends Association, said WTO's free trade policy favoured big exporters. Local farmers would be hurt when cheap, imported farm products were dumped on the market. The government had already agreed to lift tariffs on 23 items including potatoes, soybean, corn, coffee beans, coconut and palm oil.

The government could violate article 224 (2) of the constitution if it signed international agreements without parliamentary approval.