Brussels, 05/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the latest round of negotiations on an EU-India free trade agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday 6 October, several civil society groups - Asia-Europe People's Forum, Belgian Platform for Action on Health and Solidarity, Corporate Europe Observatory, India FDI Watch, Programme on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and WIDE network - have urged the European Commission and the Indian government to halt the talks.
In an open letter, over 100 NGOs warn of the effect of an agreement on the lives of millions of people in India and in Europe and highlight the risk of worsening poverty and undermining economic and social development. At a conference on free trade and decent jobs on the sidelines of the EU-ASEM summit in Brussels on 5 October, representatives of European and Indian civil society were highly critical of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations, and called for greater transparency and for the interests of all stakeholders to be taken into account rather than just those of big business, at the expense of small farmers, fishing communities, street traders and small businesses. “There is a terrible irony in the world's two largest supposed democracies secretly negotiating a trade agreement which will be potentially disastrous for people's rights, livelihoods and for the environment. Big businesses from the EU and India have captured the agenda for these talks, at the expense of wider society. This capture is wrong and we demand an immediate halt to the negotiations. Governments must put people before profit,” says India FDI Watch. The Belgian Platform for Action on Health and Solidarity vented its concerns over access to medicines. “India is known as the pharmacy of the developing world. It would be an outrage for Europe to undermine the Indian drug industry's capacity to provide cheap and safe medicines to poor countries through this agreement - but that is what the EU seems to be doing,” it stated. The Programme on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says that the talks between the EU and India are in direct conflict with Indian government policies on job creation and protection of rights. “The Indian government promises to provide universal basic rights including the right to food, education, health, social security and work, and yet we have a free trade agreement with which the European Union will deny people, especially women, precisely these same rights,” the NGO says in a press release. (E.H./transl.rt)