Stakeholders meet hogwash, says People’s Forum

Asks negotiators to release chapters of agreement

July 25, 2017 11:43 pm | Updated 11:45 pm IST - Hyderabad

A section of civil society organisations which had been holding protests in the city for the past three days announced a boycott of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) 19th round of negotiations.

The RCEP meet invited only a few Non-Governmental Organisations on the second day of talks held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hi-Tech City, the organisations stated.

In its statement People’s Resistance Forum against FTAs and RCEP called the stakeholders’ consultations on RCEP, “a sham as it is neither meaningful nor inclusive of most stakeholders”.

Speaking to The Hindu , Kiran Vissa, an organiser said, “There was no official announcement nor was there an attempt to invite the multitude of stakeholders who are protesting the RCEP. The negotiators had also not released chapters of the agreement being discussed”.

People’s Resistance Forum also refused to give its recognition to the consultation.

People’s Summit statement pointed out that they represent peasants, agricultural workers, animal-rearers, plantation workers, women farmers, fish-workers, trade unions, industrial and mining workers, street vendors, informal workers, sex workers, insurance and bank employees, public services employees, students, IT engineers, science teachers, HIV-positive persons, women’s organizations, dalits, adivasis, and denotified-tribes.

“These are all the stakeholders who were not invited to the RCEP negotiations,” the statement read. The forum also asked 16 participating countries to make public details of negotiations.

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