Farmers, trade unions oppose regional free trade agreement

Protesting against a proposed regional free trade agreement involving India and 15 other countries, farmers and trade unions today said such a pact was "flawed" and demanded an immediate halt to such negotiations.
The Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations is an FTA involving 16 countries, including 10 of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its free trading partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Farmers and trade unions, who protested outside the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida where the five-day negotiations began today, demanded an immediate halt to such negotiations. They also asked to make public all RCEP documents and negotiating texts.

"The RCEP FTA will seriously affect Indian agriculture. Indian agriculture is in deep crisis and a large number of farmers continue to commit suicide. The government's free trade strategy is flawed. If RCEP is concluded, it will intensify the crisis in agriculture," said Rakesh Tikait of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) said.
He said the government has not conducted any impact assessment of already concluded FTAs. Farmers do not want the government to go ahead with RCEP agreement without knowing what implications it could have on Indian agriculture, he added.
The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the government officials negotiating the RCEP.

Convener of Coordination Committee of Farmers Movement, Yudhvir Singh said farmers are concerned that RCEP will increase imports of agricultural products into India.

"We are also worried that farmers' access to affordable medicines may also be affected. The government has not consulted farmers' organisations before going ahead with RCEP negotiations. This kind of secrecy in the 21st century is not acceptable," he said.
The protesters also demanded that government should hold public consultations with all who will be directly affected by RCEP including farmers' organizations, trade unions and others.
As many topics discussed under RCEP fall under state subjects, the government must hold consultations with state governments and evolve a consensus, they said.

The organisations and unions had earlier shot off a letter to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking the government to stop the negotiations, saying RCEP would jeopardize government's efforts to revive manufacturing, hit agriculture output and affect access to affordable medicines.