Immediately Halt Anti Bharat EU-India Free Trade Agreement - IndiaFDIWatch

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Dear All,

Greetings from India FDI Watch : -

The Government of India is negotiating a far reaching Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) with the European Union - a trade bloc of 27 European
countries with common offensive trade interests. Since June 2007, when
the talks began, the Government of India GoI - has kept the Indian
Parliament, state legislatures and key constituencies such as trade
unions and agriculture groups in the dark about the specifics and the
gives and talks in the ongoing negotiations with the European trade
bloc of 27 countries negotiating from a common standpoint with
individual nation countries of the world.

This letter is to bring to your urgent attention the statement
"IMMEDIATELY HALT EU-INDIA FTA NEGOTIATIONS" issued during a strategy
meeting, on the EU India FTA, organised by trade unions, people's
movements and civil society organisations on 21st September at New
Delhi.

This statement is pasted below with this letter.

In the meeting trade unionists and participants expressed deep concern
over the secrecy maintained by the government given the potential
devastating impacts of this FTA on labour and livelihood rights of
people in India . Participants unanimously agreed that a call be
issued to "IMMEDIATELY HALT EU-INDIA FTA NEGOTIATIONS" on the occasion
of upcoming EU-India summit scheduled to be held in Paris from
September 29-30. This statement will be submitted to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and the EU Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the media.

If you are in agreement with the contents of the letter, please reply
with your name and organisational affiliation. Please consider that
this is a time sensitive request and we need your endorsements by
September 26 at the latest. We also request you to send it to your
networks.

(The Letter)

IMMEDIATELY HALT EU-INDIA FTA NEGOTIATIONS

Statement of Concern from India

New Delhi, 21 September 2008

We, belonging to trade unions, people's movements and civil society
organisations express our opposition to the lack of transparency,
public debate and democratic process of the ongoing negotiations of
the European Union – India Free Trade Agreement (EU-India FTA). We
are deeply concerned that a free trade framework will have adverse
socio-economic and environmental impacts. As delegations gather for
the EU-India Summit in Paris on September 29-30, 2008, we call for a
halt of EU-India FTA negotiations.

Since the launch of the EU's corporate driven Global Europe strategy
and the subsequent commencement of the negotiations in June 2007, five
rounds of formal talks have occurred without any public access to the
Indian government position, commissioned studies and negotiating
texts. Even the Indian Parliament, state governments and legislatures
have been kept in the dark.

The Indian Commerce Ministry's consultations have been limited to
large corporate and commercial interests within India and have
completely side-stepped those who are likely to be adversely affected
by a legally binding treaty.

WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE HALT OF EU-INDIA FTA NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL:


* All existing negotiating positions, draft proposals and government
commissioned studies are made public
* All current proposals are debated and discussed in parliament and
public fora
* The federal process of consultation with the state governments is
completed and a consensus is reached
* Consultations are conducted with key constituents such as trade
unions, farmers, women, dalit, adivasi and other peoples
organizations, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives and hawkers
* A white paper is released and discussed in parliament on the socio-
economic and ecological impacts of all aspects of the EU-India FTA,
especially addressing social inequality and discrimination

Endorsed by following representatives of mass based people
organizations of India :
1 R.A Mital - Hind Mazdoor Sabha ( HMS )
2 Ashim Roy - New Trade Union Initiative ( NTUI )
3 R K Sharma - All India United Trade Union Congress ( AIUTUC )
4 Hare Krishna Debnath - National forum for Fish workers
5 Ashok Choudhry - National Forum for Forest People and Forest workers
( NFFPFW )
6 J John - Centre for Education and Communication ( CEC )
7 Smitu Kothari - Intercultural Resources ( ICR )
8 Benny Kuruvilla - Focus on the Global South
9 Umi Daniel - Action Aid India
10 Dharmendra Kumar - India FDI Watch
11 Shaktiman Ghosh - National Hawkers Federation
12 Bhaskar Goswami - Forum for Biotechnology and food Security
13 Willy vda costa - INSAF
15 Vidya Rangan - Equations
16 K M Gopa Kumar - TWN
17 Tanveer - National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights ( NCDHR )
18 A Aloysius - SAVE
19 Vijay Prakash Jain - Bharatiya Udhyog Vyapar Mandal
20 Jaison T Thomas - Dan Church Aid
21 Shalini Yog - Heinrich Bol Foundation