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| EU wants India FTA to address 'child, bonded labour' issues |
| Press Trust Of India / London Apr 21, 2009, 00:19 IST |
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“Concerned” over “child and bonded labour” in India, the European Parliament has strongly pressed the European Union to include the issues in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks with New Delhi. India is stoutly against inclusion of social issues in commercial deals.
A resolution adopted by the Strasbourg-based European Parliament last month asked the European Commission to insist on India to address the issue of child labour in the FTA, negotiations for which started in 2007.
It said the European Parliament “is concerned about the use of child labour in India, which is very often exploited in unsafe and unhealthy conditions ...asks the commission to address the issue during negotiations on the FTA”.
The resolution wanted the Indian government “to maximise its efforts to remove the underlying causes in order to end this phenomenon”.
The European Parliament also sought pressure on India to tackle the issue of “bonded labour” affecting “millions of people — largely from Dalit and Adivasi community... It is believed this issue is not being adequately addressed due to lack of administrative and political will”.
India has been strongly opposing efforts to include social and environmental issues in the multilateral and bilateral trade talks — be it FTAs or under the aegis of the World Trade Organization.
The pressure on EU from its Parliament is likely to further delay conclusion of the trade pact, which was intended to be signed by the end of 2008.
The European Parliament is insisting on inclusion of “child and bonded labour” issues in the trade deal, knowing well that New Delhi would not accept such controversial clauses in the proposed FTA.
While it wants the social agenda to find a place in commercial deals, ironically the European Parliament is “disappointed with the slow pace of negotiations of FTA with India”.
EU is India’s largest economic partner, with trade in goods worth about 46 billion Euros and in services roughly 10 billion Euros. India’s main exports to the EU include textiles, chemicals and machinery, while imports include machinery and transport equipment.
The trade between India and EU is expected to exceed 70.7 billion euros by 2010 and 160.6 billion euros by 2015.
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