[ifp-news: 23] Indian Civil Society Leaders Protest India EU Free Trade Agreement Secrecy by UPA Ministers

[IFP Editor]

Indian Civil Society Leaders Protest India EU Free Trade Agreement
Secrecy by UPA Ministers and Anand Sharma

Dear All,
Please find pasted below (1) the press release of Forum Against FTAs
on their protest at the doors of Ministry of Commerce, GOI, (2) a copy
of the memorandum submitted to the Minister and (3) press release by
Médecins Sans Frontières from Brussels, Europe.
thanks,
Dharmendra Kumar, India FDI Watch
(1)EU-India FTA to adversely impact agriculture, livelihoods,
health:Civil Society ratchets up pressure on UPA
20 April 2010, New Delhi: A beleaguered UPA Government, reeling under
pressure from a united opposition on rising food prices, came under
further attack from a coalition of groups representing farmers unions,
trade unions, hawkers, public health and other civil society
organisations on the ongoing, secret negotiations on a European Union–
India Free Trade Agreement (EU-India FTA). In a demonstration
organised under the banner of `Forum Against FTAs' outside the
Commerce Ministry, groups protested against the last round of
negotiations between EU and Indian bureaucrats currently underway in
Brussels. Reports from Ministry sources indicate that the FTA will be
signed in October 2010.

The Forum's repeated requests for access to information and genuine
discussion in the Parliament and the States on this FTA have gone
unheard. "The negotiators should have the mandate from the Indian
Parliament and the State governments for these negotiations. So far
the state governments have not been consulted and genuine discussion
has not taken place in the Parliament," said Manicandan of the Forum
Against FTAs secretariat.
Supporting the Forum's demands for transparency, Commonwealth Human
Rights Initiative stated that "with the operationalisation of the
Right to Information Act, the UPA government is duty bound to share
information with the civil society and general public while
formulating important policies. FTA is an important trade policy and
all facts and figures relating to FTA negotiations must be shared with
people by law".
Outlining their concerns on various sectors, the groups highlighted
the baffling manner in which the provisions of the FTA related to
agriculture were being negotiated. The FTA leaves the large subsidies
that the EU gives to its farmers virtually untouched but calls for a
95% reduction in India's import duties to virtually zero. `This will
hit the Indian agricultural sector hard impacting lives and
livelihoods dependent on it. In addition the services and investment
chapter of the FTA will make the entry of European agro-processing and
retail firms easy thereby impacting how food is produced and sold in
our country. Small and marginal farmers, processors, distributors and
retailers in India will be pitched against the power of multinational
retail firms' said Yudhvir Singh of the Indian Coordination Committee
of Farmers Movements.

The demands on the financial sector would make it difficult to control
the rapid influx and exit of risky investors, a major reason for the
financial crises around the world. `In the wake of the global
financial crisis, a serious rethinking on opening financial services
must take place. The crisis has de-legitimised the "best practices" of
European banks and calls for an expansion of the domestic regulatory
space not its restriction as the EU is demanding," said Kawaljit Singh
of Madhyam.
The negotiations on the EU-India FTA have also led to increasing
concern on the TRIPS-plus demands being made by the EU and their
impact on access to medicines. `India has taken the lead in the
developing world in balancing public health needs with intellectual
property rights. The EU's demands for TRIPS-plus intellectual property
rights threaten this critical balance and would lead to legislative
and policy changes in India that will undermine access to affordable
medicines not just in India but across the developing world," said
Vikas Ahuja of the Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+).
Members of the Forum Against FTAs met with officials from the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry which is negotiating the FTA and submitted a
memorandum, copies of which have also been sent to the Prime
Minister's Office. The Memo demands that the UPA release all
information, studies and negotiations on the EU-India FTA and all
other FTAs being negotiated. A further demand for a white paper on the
UPAs FTA strategy has been made.
Forum Against FTAs is a loose network of trade unions, people's
movements, civil society organizations and academia working on issues
related to agriculture, food security, livelihoods, fisheries, health,
etc. The Forum is calling for greater transparency in FTA negotiations
and for genuine public participation and consultation.

(2)April 30 2010 New Delhi
To: Shri. Anand Sharma
Minister for Commerce and industry
Government of India
Udyog Bhavan
New Delhi

Dear Sir,
We are writing to you to express our serious concerns over the EU
India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as this FTA with the 27-European
country bloc will impact critical aspects of the Indian economy and
people's lives. We note with grave concern that the GOI's numerous
FTAs under consideration cover areas that fall within the state and
concurrent list, but the GOI has ignored and sidelined the
parliament, state governments, citizens of India including farmers,
workers, womens', dalit and adivasi groups who have not been consulted
in the process of FTA negotiations. No consultations, public
discussion of the pros and cons, release of government studies,
government positions and submissions have taken place with these
constituencies. This makes a mockery out of the federal polity and
the democratic ethos of India.
Repeated requests for consultations access to information and genuine
discussion in the parliament and the states on the FTA have gone
unheard. Both the GOI and the European Commission have consistently
refused to share information with civil society groups and the general
public-- undermining the basic tenets of democratic process, policy
making and law.
The EU-India FTA raises several key concerns with regard to peoples'
livelihoods and an just economic development strategy for the country
that is now considered "emerging":
1. Impact on livelihoods: The EU-India FTA will ensure a reduction of
90% of Indian import duties to zero on day one of implementation,
while leaving the heavy subsidies on European agricultural goods
unaffected. This will hit the Indian agricultural sector hard
impacting lives and livelihoods dependent on it. In addition the
services and investment chapter of the FTA will make the entry of
European agro-processing and retail firms easy thereby impacting how
food is produced and sold in our country. Small and marginal farmers,
processors, distributors and retailers in India will be pitched
against the power of multinational retail firms.
2. Financial Liberalization will make us vulnerable to Financial
Crisis: FTA demands in finance would make it difficult to control the
rapid influx and exit of risky investors, a major reason for financial
crises in Asia and around the world. In the wake of the global
financial crisis, a serious rethinking on opening financial services
must take place. The crisis has delegitimized the "best practices" of
European banks and calls for expansion of domestic regulatory space
which FTAs restrict.
3. Access to minerals opened for EU: India is the third largest
producer of "metallic minerals" including "chromite" and other "rare
earth" minerals and currently restricts exports of iron ore and non
iron metal scraps. The EU-India FTA will be one of the key avenues
for obtaining access to these natural resources both through targeting
our export restrictions and through the investment provisions in the
FTA, exacerbating land struggles in the country.
4. Revenue losses: Our import duties are higher in comparison to the
EU. India's average import duties are 32% for agriculture and 10% for
industrial and fisheries imports. Import duties are also the easiest
way of collecting taxes for the government since goods cannot enter
without the necessary duty. However, the EU India FTA along with the
others that the government is negotiating will create a major loss of
import duty income for the government and affect our national budget.
This in turn is likely to have serious impacts on Government spending
in social sectors like education and health and the proposed National
Food Security Bill.
5. TRIPS-plus intellectual property protection: The EU's demands for
TRIPS-plus intellectual property (IP) rights would lead to legislative
and policy changes in India with regard to the scope of IP protection
and enforcement. India's Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers'
Rights Act 2001 is therefore under threat. TRIPS plus provisions
intensify monopolies over seed, pesticides, fertilisers and animal
vaccines and encourages proprietary agriculture technologies – such as
GM crops and fish. India's access to affordable medicines, the
Government's ability to issue compulsory licenses on medicines will be
severely affected.
6. Liberalising Government Procurement: The EU is also insisting that
government procurement, which accounts for nearly 13% of India's GDP,
be opened up to EU companies. Government procurement has the potential
to revive under-developed economic regions, boosts domestic production
and help fight against economic recession. Government contracts can
also help support Small and Medium Enterprises, marginalized
constituencies and poorer states by channeling money through local
firms for goods and services.
7. Giving Up Our Policy Space for No Clear Gains: The EU is
negotiating 108 FTAs or Economic Partnership Agreements. It has
numerous "non trade barriers" in both goods and services. Giving
"substantial" concessions in the FTA when any preferential treatment
from the FTA will be quickly eroded makes no sense. We are not likely
to bring down EU's non-trade barriers. The costs significantly
outweigh the benefits.
It is of grave concern that the EU-India FTA negotiations till date
have been marked by a gross absence of transparency and public debate.
There is an urgent need for an informed public debate on the
feasibility and development outcomes of the GOI's FTA strategy as a
whole.
We request you to immediately:
1) Stop all FTA negotiations until there is public consultation.
2) Release all information, studies and negotiations on the EU-India
FTA and all other FTAs being negotiated or in consideration.
3) Issue a white paper on the GOI's FTA strategy in parliament on the
cumulative socio-economic and ecological impact, especially addressing
social inequality and discrimination. A separate white paper on the
EU-India FTA and other North-South FTAs is also requested.
4) Complete a federal process of consultation with the state
governments, including the sharing of draft texts, and reach a
consensus with the states.
5) Set up a process for Parliamentary and State Legislatures' approval
before FTAs are signed.

Yours Sincerely
Forum Against FTAs

Copy to:
1) Shri. Manmohan Singh, Honurable Prime Minister of India
2) Shri. Pranab Mukherjie, Honurable Minister for Finance

(3) Médecins Sans Frontières
EU-INDIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT:
LAST CHANCE TO REMOVE PROVISIONS THAT BLOCK ACCESS TO MEDICINES
26 April 2010, Brussels – As the European Commission (EC) and India
meet for closed-door negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this
week, international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) warns this is the last chance to remove provisions
that will block access to life-saving medicines for people living in
the developing world.
"Neither Indian Trade Minister nor the EU Trade Commissioner have
given a public commitment that the provisions that affect generic
competition and access to medicines are off the table," said Michelle
Childs, Director of Policy & Advocacy at MSF's Campaign for Access to
Essential Medicines. "We will continue to fight until they are
officially and unequivocally out of the agreement."
India is the source of 80% of the AIDS medicines used in MSF
projects. Without quality affordable medicines from Indian sources,
it would have been impossible to scale up treatment to the levels seen
today, and millions of lives would not have been saved.
Through their governments' contributions to the Global Fund and other
international health agencies, European taxpayers pay for programmes
that can treat far more people thanks to affordable medicines from
India. But MSF and other groups are concerned that the EC is now
trading this away. The draft agreement contains several alarming
provisions on intellectual property and enforcement, much stricter
than anything required under the international trade rules, that
threaten the supply of essential medicines from India.
"The right to life and health of people in developing countries is
being sacrificed in this deal," said Loon Gangte, president of the
Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+). "Do not put profits before
patients. This trade agreement must not undermine India's ability to
provide people living with HIV/AIDS here and outside India with life-
saving medicines in the name of open markets."
One of the harmful provisions in the FTA is `data exclusivity'. If
India introduces data exclusivity, generic companies wishing to
register a medicine will be obliged to repeat clinical studies. This
not only creates huge financial barriers that act as a disincentive to
generic companies, but it is also in violation of medical ethics, as
people are subjected to the risks of clinical studies for something
that is already known. Data exclusivity therefore creates a new patent-
like barrier to access to medicines and vaccines, even when these
products are not protected by a patent.
"The impact of this proposed agreement is truly global, as treatment
will become considerably more expensive, and countries and funders may
have to ration the numbers of people they can put on treatment", said
Ariane Bauernfeind, HIV/AIDS programme manager for MSF projects in
South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. "We are already concerned
that newer medicines have been patented in India. The FTA threatens to
make an already bad situation worse."
Also in the draft FTA is a provision that extends the duration of a
patent term beyond 20 years. In addition, after multiple incidents of
Indian generic medicines being detained while in transit to other
developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, the EU is now
seeking to legitimise such measures by forcing India to adopt them.
Formal talks between European and Indian negotiators are opening in
Brussels this week. The EU has indicated that it wants to conclude the
FTA negotiations ahead of the EU-India summit in October.

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