WUNRN
For Women & For Human Rights - Call to Halt EU-India Free Trade Agreement Till Gender-Related Issues Are Addressed
To sign on the Statement please send a
message soon
to Barbara Specht of WIDE: barbara@wide-network.org
As
representatives of Indian and European civil society, we are deeply concerned
that the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between
From
6-8 October 2010, negotiations will continue with a new full round of
closed-door negotiations in
Research suggests that just
about every aspect of the negotiations, including the liberalisation of trade
in goods and services, the extension and strict enforcement of intellectual
property rights and the liberalisation of government procurement and investment
will destroy people’s livelihoods and undermine their rights. The proposed FTA will also erode government policy space that is
essential to manage trade and investment in the interest of pro-development, social and gender-just and
environmentally sustainable outcomes.
Our key concerns are:
·
Extension and enforcement of
Intellectual Property Rights through provisions that go beyond what is required
under World Trade Organisation agreements. TRIPS+ provisions such as data
exclusivity, patent extension, and border protection measures would severely
affect India’s ability to provide affordable medicines for the treatment of
AIDS, malaria and cancer, not only for Indian patients but worldwide; they
would contribute to hunger and malnutrition by denying small scale and
subsistence farmers’ rights to seeds and sharing of knowledge. This would
undermine people’s basic rights to livelihoods, to food and access to
healthcare, education and research.
·
Increased market access for European businesses would expose
farmers, fisherfolk, street vendors and small businesses to crushing
competition and lead to massive job and livelihood losses. In addition, tariff
reductions would create a major loss of import duty income for the Indian
government, with a potentially higher risk of further cuts in social spending
including for education, health and food security.
·
Further liberalisation of investment
would incapacitate governments, removing policy tools that protect and build
domestic industries; that ; that foster domestic value-addition and shield
vulnerable sectors of society specifically in times of crisis. For example,
·
Further
liberalisation of financial services would have a detrimental effect on lending to socially
disadvantaged sectors like small farmers and small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs), and would lead to a dramatic decline in rural credit and services.
Financial sector liberalisation would reduce government policy space to respond
to financial crises and would further destabilise the financial system.
·
Opening government procurement markets
would undermine the role and scope of the government to advance equity and
social justice by boosting domestic production, supporting SMEs and
marginalised regions and groups
·
Seeking reckless access to raw materials, including a ban on export taxes and other
export restrictions, would undermine governments' rights to regulate the use of
raw materials and natural resources in favour of their people; it would
exacerbate ongoing land displacement struggles and undermine people’s rights
for their habitats and produce.
·
The lack
of transparency, public debate and
democratic process surrounding the negotiations and the privileged access granted to business interests must be
resolved. Up until now, the trade talks have been conducted behind closed
doors, with no negotiating text or position made available to the public.
Requests for access to meaningful information by parliamentarians, state
governments and civil society in
Both the EU’s and
WE THEREFORE CALL FOR
AN IMMEDIATE HALT TO THE FTA NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN
·
The deal must not infringe on the policy space
and regulatory capacity of governments to shape economic and social policies
that serve the most vulnerable of their people and enable governments to
intervene in markets for the public interest.
·
The deal must desist from accelerating
de-regulation of the kind that would increase market concentration while
undermining access to essential services and public goods.
·
Negotiators must end the privileged access of
big business to trade policy-making in
·
Negotiators must ensure transparency, public
debate and a democratic process in relation to EU and
·
Ensure pro-development alternatives to
corporate–driven FTAs that put sustainable livelihoods, food sovereignty,
environmental, social and gender justice at the core. Such alternative
approaches support sustainable, fair and peaceful relations between the
countries and the regions instead of promoting competitiveness and a
race-to-the-bottom in terms of working conditions, standards and wages.
Signatories to this
letter:
Attac
Attac Vlanderen
Comhlámh,
Corporate Europe
Observatory,
ECVC (European
Coordination Via Campesina)
EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign
Network
Fair,
FDI Watch
Heinrich Böll
Foundation
Intercultural
Resources,
Monitoring
Sustainability of Globalisation (MSN) -
Public Interest
Research Centre,
Transnational
Institute,
WEED,
WIDE network,