Free trade pact with EU inimical to India's interests.

New Delhi, May 24 The farmers' union and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have assailed the UPA Government for going ahead with forging a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) as being highly inimical to the interests of all the domestic stakeholders.

The All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said that following the forging of an FTA with countries of Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), Indian farmers were hit hard particularly from the plantation sector, oilseeds sector and fisheries with cheap imports of tea, coffee, spices, fish products and palm oil impinging of domestic production of these products and destroying livelihoods of lakhs of farmers. It warned that the proposed India-EU FTA might lead to the flooding of Indian markets with cheap dairy products.

Stating that the UPA Government is drafting legislations compatible to FTAs while keeping Parliament unaware about their linkages to such FTAs, the AIKS specifically drew attention to the clause of data exclusivity for the agro-chemical industry in the proposed Pesticide Management Bill and the registration and re-registration clause in the proposed Seeds Bill.

“Clearly pro-monopoly and pro-agri- business measures are being acceded to as demanded by the EU and the United States at the expense of farmers and the poor,” it said.

In a separate statement, the CPI (M) apprehends that the FTA with the EU seeks to lower Indian tariffs to zero or near zero levels for 90 per cent of farm products, while leaving untouched the gargantuan subsidies EU agriculture enjoys.

This would allow the EU to dump subsidised European farm products in the Indian market, even as the country remained a mute witness to the impact of such FTAs on Indian agriculture with cheap palm oil imports destroying domestic oilseeds production.

It further alleged tariff barriers used by the country to safeguard its industry and agriculture were being dismantled even as the EU deploys non-tariff barriers such as phyto-sanitary standards and heavy subsidisation of its farm and farmers through its common agricultural policy. The CPI (M) demands that the UPA Government should not proceed any further on the India-EU FTA without “discussing and debating in Parliament and with State governments “all current proposals and negotiating drafts.”


Source : Business Line