India gives thieves key to its home

[pkuser2k12]

The EU-India FTA ​

Do you know that India finance, agriculture and retail sectors are being put 'on the market'? Perhaps you are already aware of this due to various media reports. But then again, maybe you are not because it's all being carried out behind closed doors in Brussels.
The EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), something that could fundamentally restructure Indian society and impact the lives of hundreds of millions, is being negotiated 'on behalf of the public' by politicians on both sides who are champions of the type of economic liberalisation that has already been responsible for bankrupting many Western economies.

Negotiations began in 2007, covering a wide range of areas, including various goods, products and services, as well as investment rules, government procurement; and intellectual property rights. After 16 rounds of talks, the issues are still being fine tuned.'Developed' countries are resorting more and more to these types of bilateral trade agreements with individual developing countries because they want to continue to push their free trade agenda that was rejected by developing countries at the World Trade Organisation.

The EU-India FTA essentially represents the demands of big business in the West and results from their strategic hegemony over government bureaucracies and politicians. With Western economies in crisis, India represents potential ripe pickings for transnational corporations' never ending compulsion for profit.

Kavaljit Singh of the Madhyam research institute notes that the EU wants to export its heavily subsidised dairy products to India (1). The Indian government has encouraged the co-operative model in the dairy sector with active policy protection. It therefore makes little sense that dairy trade will be opened up to unfair competition from subsidised European exports under the FTA. According to RS Sodhi, managing director of the country's largest milk cooperative, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the FTA will rob the vibrant domestic dairy industry and the millions of farmers that are connected to it from their rightful access to a growing market within India.

The EU has an overproduction problem in the dairy sector and is looking to dump its surplus. By dumping products in other countries, producer prices and incomes there become depressed. India's dairy sector is mostly self sufficient and employs about 90 million people, a majority of whom are 75 million women. The sector is a lifeline for small and marginal farmers, landless poor and a significant source of income for millions of families.

Although the Indian government is saying that the dairy sector will be protected, the EU is lobbying hard to open up the sector. S Kannaiyan of the South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers movements wonders if the government can be trusted. It's a fair point, given its obsession with foreign investment and neo-liberalism.

In general, profits for EU companies could be huge if they can dump their products in India and permanently displace local farmers and producers. In the name of 'free trade', the EU wants India to cut import duties, but will not alter its own massive subsidies to its agribusiness and farm sector, which means that Indian farmers will not be able to compete with EU agribusiness. Yudhvir Singh of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) says that free trade is supposed to be trade between equals, but such free trade pacts are on a completely unequal footing.

The FTA also seeks better protection for European biotechnology companies in the form of stronger intellectual property rights. On its blog, the BKU notes that this will allow European biotech firms to sell their seeds in India at any price they wish, get royalties from Indian farmers and deprive Indian farmers from saving or exchanging seeds. Indian farmers are already in debt, committing suicide en masse and suffering from the failure of expensive GMOs and unaffordable private seeds.

The EU is also demanding the liberalisation of the retail sector and is attempting to facilitate the entry of European agro-processing and retail gaints like Carrefour and Tesco, which could threaten the livelihoods of small retailers and street vendors. Nandini Jairam of the Karnataka farmers' movement argues that the entry of such retail giants will be terrible for farmers because they will monopolise the whole food chain from procurement to distribution. In effect, farmers will be at the mercy of such large companies as they will have the power to set prices and also will not be interested to buy small quantities from small producers.

Under the FTA there are also plans to liberalise investment provisions, financial services and banking, whereby European banks and finance companies can enter the Indian market. According to the BKU, investors from the EU will get preference over resources like land, coastal areas and water rather than local people. Such provisions could serve to facilitate takeovers of farm land and conversion from food crops to export oriented cash crops.

At a time when countries across the world are reeling under a financial crisis caused by private banks, regulation and not liberalisation is needed. The proposal to liberalise the banking and insurance sectors is taking place in a world already ravaged by the criminality of the finance sector and which, according to Kavaljit Singh, by providing greater market access to crisis-ridden European banks, could potentially weaken an otherwise stable banking system in India.

Moreover, according to Singh, measures on investment could see the Indian government sued by multinational companies for billions of dollars in private arbitration panels outside of Indian courts if national laws, policies, court decisions or other actions are perceived to interfere with their investments.


Conclusion


At the heart of this whole debate is the issue of national sovereignty - or, to put it another way, self determination, self sufficiency and the nurturing of local democracy and economies in order that local people have control over their own lives and futures. The EU-India FTA appears to sound the death knell for such notions.

Since the passing of Margaret Thatcher, much has been written about the impact of the types of neo-liberal policies that she championed, not least in terms of them leading to the current crisis being experienced by Western economies. The pro-globalisation corporate interests that backed Thatcher helped destroy the post-1945 Keynesian consensus and tip the balance in favour of elite interests. This subsequently led to the depression or stagnation of wages and thus demand. The profits accrued from the subsequent debt-bubble Western economies of the 1990s and onwards could not be sustained, and now, facing crisis at home, places like India represent rich pickings for Western capitalism.

Call it 'globalisation' if you must, but let's call it for what it is: imperialism. In an effort to maintain profit margins, elite concerns are going abroad to plunder public assets, exploit human labour and trample over local economies and communities. The worst thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. Once India's political leaders began to place emphasis on 'deregulation' and cede power to 'the market', the green light was given for transnationals to hollow out Indian society.

Farmers and trade unions in India, via the alliance called the Anti FTA front, have written 872 letters to important officials, organisations and political parties about the FTA. Rakesh Tikait of the BKU argues that, although there are serious impacts on food security and the livelihood security of millions of farmers and small retailers, farmers haven't even been informed nor consulted about the FTA.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) states that India should not legally commit to policies under this FTA. He believes that the government cannot seal this issue at the behest of EU while a national debate is still ongoing on the subject. It begs the question: are we to witness democracy being sidelined in the blind pursuit of a corporate driven agenda? It seems so (2).

It begs another question too: where is the logic in handing the thieves the key to your home?

Colin Todhunter

SOURCE:
India gives thieves key to its home - English pravda.ru

I HAVE POSTED THIS ARTICLE NOT FOR ANY ANTI INDIA TROLLING AND NOT FROM ANY ANTI INDIA WEBSITE.I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ECONOMIC TOPICS SO KINDLY TRY TO ELABORATE AND GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS AND NOT START ANY VS VS BASHING.

 

[pkuser2k12]

guys any thoughts on accuracy of this article or anything else

 

[VeeraBhadra]

It's mere propaganda of commies.If GOI had ever played in their hand then it would have been for our economy.

 

[INDIC]

I believe such FTA agreement will be beneficial for Indian economy.

 

[Dillinger]

The EU-India FTA ​

Do you know that India finance, agriculture and retail sectors are being put 'on the market'? Perhaps you are already aware of this due to various media reports. But then again, maybe you are not because it's all being carried out behind closed doors in Brussels.
The EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), something that could fundamentally restructure Indian society and impact the lives of hundreds of millions, is being negotiated 'on behalf of the public' by politicians on both sides who are champions of the type of economic liberalisation that has already been responsible for bankrupting many Western economies.

Negotiations began in 2007, covering a wide range of areas, including various goods, products and services, as well as investment rules, government procurement; and intellectual property rights. After 16 rounds of talks, the issues are still being fine tuned.'Developed' countries are resorting more and more to these types of bilateral trade agreements with individual developing countries because they want to continue to push their free trade agenda that was rejected by developing countries at the World Trade Organisation.

The EU-India FTA essentially represents the demands of big business in the West and results from their strategic hegemony over government bureaucracies and politicians. With Western economies in crisis, India represents potential ripe pickings for transnational corporations' never ending compulsion for profit.

Kavaljit Singh of the Madhyam research institute notes that the EU wants to export its heavily subsidised dairy products to India (1). The Indian government has encouraged the co-operative model in the dairy sector with active policy protection. It therefore makes little sense that dairy trade will be opened up to unfair competition from subsidised European exports under the FTA. According to RS Sodhi, managing director of the country's largest milk cooperative, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the FTA will rob the vibrant domestic dairy industry and the millions of farmers that are connected to it from their rightful access to a growing market within India.

The EU has an overproduction problem in the dairy sector and is looking to dump its surplus. By dumping products in other countries, producer prices and incomes there become depressed. India's dairy sector is mostly self sufficient and employs about 90 million people, a majority of whom are 75 million women. The sector is a lifeline for small and marginal farmers, landless poor and a significant source of income for millions of families.

Although the Indian government is saying that the dairy sector will be protected, the EU is lobbying hard to open up the sector. S Kannaiyan of the South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers movements wonders if the government can be trusted. It's a fair point, given its obsession with foreign investment and neo-liberalism.

In general, profits for EU companies could be huge if they can dump their products in India and permanently displace local farmers and producers. In the name of 'free trade', the EU wants India to cut import duties, but will not alter its own massive subsidies to its agribusiness and farm sector, which means that Indian farmers will not be able to compete with EU agribusiness. Yudhvir Singh of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) says that free trade is supposed to be trade between equals, but such free trade pacts are on a completely unequal footing.

The FTA also seeks better protection for European biotechnology companies in the form of stronger intellectual property rights. On its blog, the BKU notes that this will allow European biotech firms to sell their seeds in India at any price they wish, get royalties from Indian farmers and deprive Indian farmers from saving or exchanging seeds. Indian farmers are already in debt, committing suicide en masse and suffering from the failure of expensive GMOs and unaffordable private seeds.

The EU is also demanding the liberalisation of the retail sector and is attempting to facilitate the entry of European agro-processing and retail gaints like Carrefour and Tesco, which could threaten the livelihoods of small retailers and street vendors. Nandini Jairam of the Karnataka farmers' movement argues that the entry of such retail giants will be terrible for farmers because they will monopolise the whole food chain from procurement to distribution. In effect, farmers will be at the mercy of such large companies as they will have the power to set prices and also will not be interested to buy small quantities from small producers.

Under the FTA there are also plans to liberalise investment provisions, financial services and banking, whereby European banks and finance companies can enter the Indian market. According to the BKU, investors from the EU will get preference over resources like land, coastal areas and water rather than local people. Such provisions could serve to facilitate takeovers of farm land and conversion from food crops to export oriented cash crops.

At a time when countries across the world are reeling under a financial crisis caused by private banks, regulation and not liberalisation is needed. The proposal to liberalise the banking and insurance sectors is taking place in a world already ravaged by the criminality of the finance sector and which, according to Kavaljit Singh, by providing greater market access to crisis-ridden European banks, could potentially weaken an otherwise stable banking system in India.

Moreover, according to Singh, measures on investment could see the Indian government sued by multinational companies for billions of dollars in private arbitration panels outside of Indian courts if national laws, policies, court decisions or other actions are perceived to interfere with their investments.


Conclusion


At the heart of this whole debate is the issue of national sovereignty - or, to put it another way, self determination, self sufficiency and the nurturing of local democracy and economies in order that local people have control over their own lives and futures. The EU-India FTA appears to sound the death knell for such notions.

Since the passing of Margaret Thatcher, much has been written about the impact of the types of neo-liberal policies that she championed, not least in terms of them leading to the current crisis being experienced by Western economies. The pro-globalisation corporate interests that backed Thatcher helped destroy the post-1945 Keynesian consensus and tip the balance in favour of elite interests. This subsequently led to the depression or stagnation of wages and thus demand. The profits accrued from the subsequent debt-bubble Western economies of the 1990s and onwards could not be sustained, and now, facing crisis at home, places like India represent rich pickings for Western capitalism.

Call it 'globalisation' if you must, but let's call it for what it is: imperialism. In an effort to maintain profit margins, elite concerns are going abroad to plunder public assets, exploit human labour and trample over local economies and communities. The worst thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. Once India's political leaders began to place emphasis on 'deregulation' and cede power to 'the market', the green light was given for transnationals to hollow out Indian society.

Farmers and trade unions in India, via the alliance called the Anti FTA front, have written 872 letters to important officials, organisations and political parties about the FTA. Rakesh Tikait of the BKU argues that, although there are serious impacts on food security and the livelihood security of millions of farmers and small retailers, farmers haven't even been informed nor consulted about the FTA.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) states that India should not legally commit to policies under this FTA. He believes that the government cannot seal this issue at the behest of EU while a national debate is still ongoing on the subject. It begs the question: are we to witness democracy being sidelined in the blind pursuit of a corporate driven agenda? It seems so (2).

It begs another question too: where is the logic in handing the thieves the key to your home?

Colin Todhunter

SOURCE:
India gives thieves key to its home - English pravda.ru

I HAVE POSTED THIS ARTICLE NOT FOR ANY ANTI INDIA TROLLING AND NOT FROM ANY ANTI INDIA WEBSITE.I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ECONOMIC TOPICS SO KINDLY TRY TO ELABORATE AND GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS AND NOT START ANY VS VS BASHING.

Depends. I read the article with some patience. The article itself is biased and filled with hyperbole. Which is understandable given Russia's relations with EU member countries with relation to trade...Russia has- of late- held a certain premium in that group and this new agreement was not completely vetted through them. Not a happy thing to gulp down with black bread and borscht.

On to the idea that the FTA could be harmful. Sure it could be, as could be any other economic policy that is not carefully regulated. It boils down to how the authorities in charge can stream line the particulars and their operation.

Lets wait and watch.

 

[Hope4btr]

The EU-India FTA ​

Do you know that India finance, agriculture and retail sectors are being put 'on the market'? Perhaps you are already aware of this due to various media reports. But then again, maybe you are not because it's all being carried out behind closed doors in Brussels.
The EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), something that could fundamentally restructure Indian society and impact the lives of hundreds of millions, is being negotiated 'on behalf of the public' by politicians on both sides who are champions of the type of economic liberalisation that has already been responsible for bankrupting many Western economies.

Negotiations began in 2007, covering a wide range of areas, including various goods, products and services, as well as investment rules, government procurement; and intellectual property rights. After 16 rounds of talks, the issues are still being fine tuned.'Developed' countries are resorting more and more to these types of bilateral trade agreements with individual developing countries because they want to continue to push their free trade agenda that was rejected by developing countries at the World Trade Organisation.

The EU-India FTA essentially represents the demands of big business in the West and results from their strategic hegemony over government bureaucracies and politicians. With Western economies in crisis, India represents potential ripe pickings for transnational corporations' never ending compulsion for profit.

Kavaljit Singh of the Madhyam research institute notes that the EU wants to export its heavily subsidised dairy products to India (1). The Indian government has encouraged the co-operative model in the dairy sector with active policy protection. It therefore makes little sense that dairy trade will be opened up to unfair competition from subsidised European exports under the FTA. According to RS Sodhi, managing director of the country's largest milk cooperative, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the FTA will rob the vibrant domestic dairy industry and the millions of farmers that are connected to it from their rightful access to a growing market within India.

The EU has an overproduction problem in the dairy sector and is looking to dump its surplus. By dumping products in other countries, producer prices and incomes there become depressed. India's dairy sector is mostly self sufficient and employs about 90 million people, a majority of whom are 75 million women. The sector is a lifeline for small and marginal farmers, landless poor and a significant source of income for millions of families.

Although the Indian government is saying that the dairy sector will be protected, the EU is lobbying hard to open up the sector. S Kannaiyan of the South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers movements wonders if the government can be trusted. It's a fair point, given its obsession with foreign investment and neo-liberalism.

In general, profits for EU companies could be huge if they can dump their products in India and permanently displace local farmers and producers. In the name of 'free trade', the EU wants India to cut import duties, but will not alter its own massive subsidies to its agribusiness and farm sector, which means that Indian farmers will not be able to compete with EU agribusiness. Yudhvir Singh of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) says that free trade is supposed to be trade between equals, but such free trade pacts are on a completely unequal footing.

The FTA also seeks better protection for European biotechnology companies in the form of stronger intellectual property rights. On its blog, the BKU notes that this will allow European biotech firms to sell their seeds in India at any price they wish, get royalties from Indian farmers and deprive Indian farmers from saving or exchanging seeds. Indian farmers are already in debt, committing suicide en masse and suffering from the failure of expensive GMOs and unaffordable private seeds.

The EU is also demanding the liberalisation of the retail sector and is attempting to facilitate the entry of European agro-processing and retail gaints like Carrefour and Tesco, which could threaten the livelihoods of small retailers and street vendors. Nandini Jairam of the Karnataka farmers' movement argues that the entry of such retail giants will be terrible for farmers because they will monopolise the whole food chain from procurement to distribution. In effect, farmers will be at the mercy of such large companies as they will have the power to set prices and also will not be interested to buy small quantities from small producers.

Under the FTA there are also plans to liberalise investment provisions, financial services and banking, whereby European banks and finance companies can enter the Indian market. According to the BKU, investors from the EU will get preference over resources like land, coastal areas and water rather than local people. Such provisions could serve to facilitate takeovers of farm land and conversion from food crops to export oriented cash crops.

At a time when countries across the world are reeling under a financial crisis caused by private banks, regulation and not liberalisation is needed. The proposal to liberalise the banking and insurance sectors is taking place in a world already ravaged by the criminality of the finance sector and which, according to Kavaljit Singh, by providing greater market access to crisis-ridden European banks, could potentially weaken an otherwise stable banking system in India.

Moreover, according to Singh, measures on investment could see the Indian government sued by multinational companies for billions of dollars in private arbitration panels outside of Indian courts if national laws, policies, court decisions or other actions are perceived to interfere with their investments.


Conclusion


At the heart of this whole debate is the issue of national sovereignty - or, to put it another way, self determination, self sufficiency and the nurturing of local democracy and economies in order that local people have control over their own lives and futures. The EU-India FTA appears to sound the death knell for such notions.

Since the passing of Margaret Thatcher, much has been written about the impact of the types of neo-liberal policies that she championed, not least in terms of them leading to the current crisis being experienced by Western economies. The pro-globalisation corporate interests that backed Thatcher helped destroy the post-1945 Keynesian consensus and tip the balance in favour of elite interests. This subsequently led to the depression or stagnation of wages and thus demand. The profits accrued from the subsequent debt-bubble Western economies of the 1990s and onwards could not be sustained, and now, facing crisis at home, places like India represent rich pickings for Western capitalism.

Call it 'globalisation' if you must, but let's call it for what it is: imperialism. In an effort to maintain profit margins, elite concerns are going abroad to plunder public assets, exploit human labour and trample over local economies and communities. The worst thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. Once India's political leaders began to place emphasis on 'deregulation' and cede power to 'the market', the green light was given for transnationals to hollow out Indian society.

Farmers and trade unions in India, via the alliance called the Anti FTA front, have written 872 letters to important officials, organisations and political parties about the FTA. Rakesh Tikait of the BKU argues that, although there are serious impacts on food security and the livelihood security of millions of farmers and small retailers, farmers haven't even been informed nor consulted about the FTA.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) states that India should not legally commit to policies under this FTA. He believes that the government cannot seal this issue at the behest of EU while a national debate is still ongoing on the subject. It begs the question: are we to witness democracy being sidelined in the blind pursuit of a corporate driven agenda? It seems so (2).

It begs another question too: where is the logic in handing the thieves the key to your home?

Colin Todhunter

SOURCE:
India gives thieves key to its home - English pravda.ru

I HAVE POSTED THIS ARTICLE NOT FOR ANY ANTI INDIA TROLLING AND NOT FROM ANY ANTI INDIA WEBSITE.I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ECONOMIC TOPICS SO KINDLY TRY TO ELABORATE AND GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS AND NOT START ANY VS VS BASHING.

Even with the FDI in retail sector opening in India, the products that would be sold by the retail giants will be more or less domestic and the rates will be caped by the GOI and state govts.The high end imported products will be taxed accordingly and separately. Even it is inconceivable that milk products packed from EU will be allowed to sell in India and compete with the local products( assuming the cost of transportation, storage and import duties levied on such products on addition to the cost of manufacture would be comparable to Indian made dairy products). And even if the GOI on a compellingly delusional ride, makes such a move, the entire political spectrum will rip the proposal to pieces before it goes for a vote in the parliament. So, I think the farmers and I , could sleep tight without worrying about being penniless in the not-so-distant future.

Note: For every point raised in the article, scores of counter arguments can be given and rightly so. But it would be futile going into details, rather I would expect the author to be more informative before writing such a piece.

 

[neutral_person]

FTA agreements in general are harmful in the short run, but beneficial in the long run. Its short term pain for long term gain. FTA will get rid of many Indian products/businesses/agriculture that are not competitive in terms of global standards in terms of price, quality, etc. So in the short run companies will shut down perhaps, people might lose jobs etc. But it will force Indians to make products that are globally competitive, and in the long run will probably benefit the nation.

 

[Koovie]

Ok, this is mostly socialist BS... but one thing is clear:


1.) Liberalisation must take place! If we dont open our markets we WILL FALL BEHIND and we will NOT prosper.

2.) But it must take place STEP BY STEP! We must not open our markets at once! They will not survive such a sudden exposure to the rest of the world.

We must take a lesson from China: Free markets zones in carefully selected regions which were able to compete.

 

[Sashan]

FTA with Europe needs to be pursued - The benefit is there is every chance for the manufacturing sector to grow and the contribution of that sector's GDP can be improved which is now lagging behind (dominant being service sector).

One of the groups of people who might get affected here - Farmers - In short, it will be subsidized Euro farmers vs subsidized Indian farmers. Having stated that, the agriculture sector is not doing well inspite of all the subsidies - free electricity,loan write-offs in billions not to mention the artificial poverty which creeps in generation after generation due to the sons/daughters sharing the same piece of land a farmer had tilled before. So if restructures the Indian society so be in it. In the long run, it will be beneficial.

The other sector which they mentioned, small vendors will be not affected as the large retail outlets are not going to be there in every street.

And I could see the subjective approach when the article is slamming Thatcher for destroying the trade unions. That is one significant achievement what Thatcher did. The same which needs to happen in India to attract investments in manufacturing sector - break the hold of the trade unions.

 

[J-30]

FTA is always negotiated based on two parties strong and weak points, FTA is always good for both the parties if negotiated properly, I think I read somewhere that this FTA will access to IT Indians to sell their services in EU, which willgenerate lot of revenue for the IT companies in India

 

[Nisha]

I believe such FTA agreement will be beneficial for Indian economy.

Why do you think so?