The free trade agreement in the discourses of wheat growers in Yacuanquer - Nariño

Abstract

Since the late twentieth century, Colombia has been gradually involved in the processes of free trading with other countries on account of the marketing dynamics at an international level. These processes include the economic opening in the decade of 1990, and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at present. The FTA has been the subject of a series of unconformities established by some economic sectors, such as the wheat growers throughout the country, particularly, those who inhabit the Department of Nariño. These unconformities go beyond the simple disagreement caused by the signing of the treaty, and lies in the characteristics of the FTA discourses argued by the national government. The present study analyzes the discursive features in relation to the role that wheat growers play; for this reason, and based on the theoretical and methodological foundations offered from the social analysis of the discourse, it intends to determine the characteristics of the “discursive social structure” derived from this process. The data showed that, inside the referred structure, the wheat farmers gained access and unveiled the hidden side of the official discourse of the treaty, through a process of resistance against its implementation, and revealing the negative consequences it would produce in its social context.