AsiaDHRRA will co-organize a panel entitled “Towards Fair Trade In An Integrating ASEAN: Perspectives of Workers, Farmers and Informal Sector” during the 6th ASEAN People’s Assembly 2007. It will be held on October 25, 2007 from 8:30-10:00AM at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City, Philippines.
The featured panel speakers are
- Ms. Alice Chang, UNI-APRO (on workers)
- Mr. Nuruddin, AFA (on farmers)
- Ms. Rosalinda Ofreneo, Homenet Southeast Asia (on informal sector)
A Brief Description of Panel:
The ongoing liberalization among the ASEAN Member Countries , especially in the area of agriculture trade and service sector liberalization – are least discussed in ASEAN trade liberalization and regional integration. And yet, these have serious social ramifications on small men and women farmers, on workers and on the service sector, both formal and informal. What can governments, trade unions, and small farmers do to ensure that any process of regional integration and liberalization is equitable and inclusive? How can the pitfalls of liberalization be avoided? What lessons can we learn from the practices of various groups and other governments on how to meet the challenges and limitations of trade and service sector liberalization ?
This panel session is one of the concurrent panel sessions being conducted during the 6th ASEAN Peoples’ Assembly, with the theme, “ASEAN at 40: Realizing the Peoples’ Expectations”.
The panel is jointly organized by the following regional organizations;
- ASEAN Service Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC)
- Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA)
- Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA)
- Fair Trade Alliance (FTA)
- Homebased Workers’ Networks in Southeast Asia (Homenet Southeast Asia )
- Union Network International -Asia Pacific Region (UNI-APRO )