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An Expert workshop on the FTA negotiations between EU and India took place in Berlin, at the Heinrich Boll Foundation office, on 27th and 28th of April, 2009. Entitled ‘Expert Workshop: FTA Negotiations between EU and India’, the workshop aimed to bring together members of European civil society organisations and some members from Indian civil society organizations, who are working on the FTA negotiations between EU and India. The aim was to exchange information as well as add to a common understanding of the impact of this FTA, especially on India, from a development perspective. The final objective was to form a joint plan of action on research and campaigning activities on this issue.
As has often been pointed out, despite India’s high growth, the large number of poor and the low development levels especially in education (& skills) and health, are major sources of concern for a developing country like India and the need to protect the vulnerable cannot be undermined in this FTA. EU subsidies in agriculture remain a critical area in talks, and development concessions in terms of longer liberalization period, more sensitive products, and special safeguard mechanisms are issues that India is trying to focus on. In addition, the fact that EU wants an FTA which includes TRIPs plus provisions, public procurement, competition policy, investment liberalisation in critical sectors like banking and retail, is an added area of concern. Finally, the fact that India has to lower tariffs much more than the EU will not only lower protection levels for vulnerable sectors but reduce government revenue and therefore social spending as well. Apart from the EU-India FTA, the EFTA-India FTA, also under separate negotiations, was also under discussion in this workshop. IPRs are a major issue in this deal and Fisheries is another segment that the EFTA countries are seriously interested in.
Fortunately, the concern shared by Indian academics and CSOs about this secret FTA negotiation are shared by several European CSOs who have been actively following up on the negotiations and undertaking research on relevant issues. These groups came together to hold this workshop which intended to do two things; a) Taking stock of current research and activities on this issue; b) planning future research and joint campaign strategies in order to put pressure on both EU and the Indian governments to address development concerns in this FTA. The Institute for World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED, Germany), The Heinrich Boll Foundation (Germany), Oxfam Germany, Traidcraft (UK), WIDE (Switzerland), Berne Declaration (Switzerland), Medecines Sans Frontiers (Germany), Swiss Alliance of Development Organisations, TNI, Germanwatch, Forum on Development and Environment, and EED, Germany were some of the organizations which came together for this workshop.
From the Indian side, the workshop had representation from the Forum on FTAs, a coalition of about 70 organisations representing Indian CSOs working on the area of trade and development, trade unions, farmers groups and various other stakeholders. Independent researchers and representatives from the Centre for Education and Communication (CEC, New Delhi) and the Centre for Trade and Development (Centad, New Delhi) participated from the Indian side.
This presentation was made by Ranja Sengupta, Research Fellow, Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), who participated at the workshop on behalf of Centad, and was sponsored by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Germany. The presentation looked at the current status of human development in India in terms of three indicators; poverty, inequality and health, and argued that the status in these indicators is currently dismal and have been worsened in many ways by the recent period of trade liberalization. At the minimum, trade liberalization, combined with the domestic policy atmosphere, has not been able to ensure widespread gains. There are several problematic provisions in the EU-India FTA which can further exacerbate these adversities, especially the different kinds of inequalities that India is currently facing. In particular, if India is not given major development concessions and policy space in this FTA, and unless it already has in place a certain level of human development, it will be unable to make gains from this FTA.
Presentation made at the Expert Workshop on the FTA Negotiations between EU and India, Berlin, 27-28th April, 2009 is attached herewith
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