The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday accused the United Progressive Alliance government of secretly negotiating an India-European Union Free Trade Agreement, and asked it not proceed to in the matter without taking Parliament and State governments into confidence.
In a statement here, the Polit Bureau charged that the Centre was set to conclude the FTA by October, keeping Parliament and the State governments in the dark despite its far-reaching consequences for the economy and the people.
Stressing that the EU was seeking to lower Indian tariffs to zero or near-zero levels for 90 per cent of agricultural products while leaving untouched the huge subsidies EU agriculture enjoyed, the CPI(M) warned that this would allow EU to dump subsidised European farm products in the Indian market.
Similar FTAs had already impacted Indian agriculture, with cheap palm oil imports destroying domestic production.
Expressing surprise that the government was even discussing rewriting Indian patent and copyright laws, besides the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the party said this action only underscored the scant respect it had for Parliament. Accepting product patents for drugs and pharmaceuticals under TRIPS already restricted Indians' access to cheap medicines.
A further set of pro-monopoly and pro-corporate measures of extension of patent life by five years, reduction of farmers' rights in favour of agri-business, and data exclusivity as being demanded by the EU would further harm the people's interests and access to medicines, seeds and food, the Polit Bureau said.
Illegal seizure
The EU's demand that India brand “counterfeit” all pharmaceutical products that were not in conformity with its patent laws and which India exported to others through EU territory was a crude attempt to justify the illegal seizures it had carried out recently.
The CPI(M) expressed surprise that India was even willing to discuss such issues with the EU, particularly when it was planning, along with Brazil, to invoke World Trade Organisation dispute settlement provisions against the seizure. As for the proposed massive cuts in import duties on industrial goods, the CPI(M) said this would greatly impact the country's manufacturing sector that was already facing job losses and shrinking markets.
The statement underlined that the provisions were also seeking financial liberalisation in investment and services, something that the Left opposed when the UPA government sought to carry out those measures.
The party assailed the government for its willingness to lower tariff barriers, which are used to protect industry and agriculture, and for creating TRIPS provisions, which were completely skewed, for opening the Indian market to the EU.
