The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Free trade: call for caution

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Sunday, Dec 23, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Free trade: call for caution

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: Speakers at a consultation on ‘India’s Free Trade Agreements (FTA) negotiations and implications for Kerala,’ organised in the city, have called for caution on part of New Delhi in signing the agreements. Farmers’ groups, researchers and civil society organisations participated in the meeting, organised by the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF) in collaboration with the Mumbai-based research group ‘Focus on the Global South.’

Market access

Speakers at the meeting said the ongoing crisis in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha round of trade talks and the market access ambitions of big businesses had necessitated a shift to bilateral and regional FTAs. India, they observed, was in the process of negotiating and implementing some 27 FTAs.

The participants noted that the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) signed in 2000 had adversely impacted on farmers in Kerala. Import of duty-free black pepper from Sri Lanka resulted in a free fall in local prices. The meeting said suicides among pepper farmers in the Wayanad region had registered a sharp rise during this period.

Farmers Relief Forum leader A.C. Varkey said NGOs were forced to launch campaigns against the attachment of farms and houses of farmers by banks. Since India slashed tariffs in 1996-97, agricultural imports across the country have spiralled; 270 per cent increase in volume and 300 per cent in value terms, he said.

The meeting noted that while middle class consumers had benefited through cheaper prices of imported commodities, a huge section of consumers who were also producers had been given short shrift. India, they said, had some 30 crore small farmers with less than 2 acres of land.

Threat

New FTAs such as the European Union (EU) – India Trade and Investment Agreement, India - Thailand FTA and the ASEAN - India Regional Trade and Investment Area were identified as posing threats to the fishing community in the State.

The EU-India FTA is in the third round of negotiations and covers areas such as agriculture, fisheries, goods, investment and services and is India’s most ambitious and challenging FTA till date. With 27 countries, the EU is one of the largest trading blocks and controls a third of global trade. Both negotiating teams have agreed that the minimum coverage of the FTA will be 90 per cent of all trade.

“We have heard from sources in the Commerce Ministry that fish species such as mackerels, sardines, mullets, anchovies and flounders, the means of livelihood for traditional fishworkers, will be imported under minimum tariffs. We will be denied a just price for our catch as import of subsidised fish would cause local prices to plummet,” said KSMTF State president T. Peter.

Indian negotiators expect that these FTAs will provide Indian exporters access to foreign markets. While tariffs are low in the EU, there are several other import restrictions such as domestic subsidies, non-tariff barriers (NTBs), trade rate quotas (TRQs), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and tariff peaks to protect their markets.

Mr. Peter stressed on the need for a nation-wide awareness campaign on the ‘disastrous effects’ of the ISFTA. “The ASEAN – India regional FTA, which involves the 10 South East Asian countries, will have a bigger adverse impact on us. Many of ASEAN exports such as fish, copra, coconut oil, desiccated coconut, natural rubber and pepper are also produced in India,” he said.

He said KSMTF would work closely with other unions and social movements to challenge the FTA policy of the Commerce Ministry. The federation has drawn up plans to bring out pamphlets, exert pressure on MLAs to raise the issue in the next session of the Kerala Assembly and take up a joint campaign with fishworkers and farmers groups in the ASEAN and the EU.

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