Pro-RSS bodies lend voice to stop deal

RSS-backed outfits join trade & farmer unions on concerns about impact of deal on access to medicines, investor rights and farmers' access to seeds

Trade unions, farmers’ and civil society organisations, including those supported by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party), appealed on Wednesday to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to not surrender the interests of India’s farmers and domestic industry at the 12th round of trade negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) agreement.

Sitharaman will be leading India’s delegation to the negotiations in Perth, Australia, from Friday.

These bodies have flagged concerns around possible negative impacts of an agreement on access to medicines, on tax policy, investor rights and access of farmers to seeds.

The ‘Anti-FTA (free trade agreement) Committee’ gave a memorandum to the minister which argues that Indian farmers have suffered after a similar deal between the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) bloc and India. An RCEP, it warned, will further hit the interests of Indian farmers, with Australia and New Zealand asking for deeper access to India’s agricultural markets while continuing to subsidise their farmers.

And, that RCEP will affect generic medicine manufacturing companies and small & medium enterprises. The dairy industry would be hit and so would efforts like ‘Make in India’, given the dominance of Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea in the relevant sectors.

RCEP has been under negotiation since 2012 between 16 governments in the Asia-Pacific region. Namely, the 10-member Asean plus plus Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and India. The Asean countries are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore.

If concluded, RCEP will be the world's largest trading bloc. An agreement is expected later this year. It is to cover trade in goods, agriculture, services, investment, competition, intellectual property and other areas of economic and technical cooperation.

In a series of tweets, Sitharaman denied reports that India had been asked to cut tariff barriers or exit the talks. She termed such reports “baseless” and said negotiations were happening on details.

The ‘Anti-FTA Committee’ includes various trade unions -- the RSS-supported Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (and Swadeshi Andolan), Bharatiya Kisan Union, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Centre for Indian Trade Unions, All India Trade Union Congress and Ekta Parishad. Former BJP leader K N Govindacharya is also a signatory to the memorandum that demands a public review of India’s current FTAs, making public all RCEP documents and negotiating texts and consultations with stakeholders, including the states.

The ‘Forum against FTAs’, a civil society group, stated the “Government of India itself is wary of the overall gains to the Indian economy from RCEP.” It asked Indian negotiators to not succumb to pressure, particularly on tariff reductions.

Medecins Sans Frontiers, an international humanitarian medical body, said the agreement would restrict access to affordable generic medicines for people in many countries who will be part of the agreement and also for millions around the world who rely on life-saving affordable generics from India.