A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for Germany, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday asked the UPA government to put the free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) on hold as, the party says, it will have an adverse impact on domestic agriculture, dairy and other sectors.
Describing the decision to sign the FTA with the EU as “highly controversial”, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi told reporters that “irrespective of ideological considerations, conditions which, according to reports, the UPA government “are willing to concede to the EU will seriously jeopardise the interests of the Indian people with no obvious gains in trade or economic expansion”.
The prime minister is expected to sign the FTA with the EU at Brussels, he said.
Joshi also attacked Manmohan Singh for going ahead with the FTA without considering the views of the opposition parties, experts and farmers.
He demanded a comprehensive debate in parliament during the second half of the Budget session (from April 22) on all FTAs, especially the EU-India deal, as well as immediate release of the texts of the negotiations and impact assessment studies.
He warned the BJP will take up this issue in Parliament as the party fears that the FTA with EU “should not be allowed to endanger Indian retail in general and agriculture and dairy farming in particular”.
He said the EU countries offer heavy subsidies in the agro sector which would help them dump their products on India. Citing a report, the party said India stands to gain very little from this FTA, because close to 69 per cent of its agricultural exports and 65 per cent of its non-agricultural export already enter the European markets without duties, whereas it allows only less than six percent of the former's products without duty.
Under the proposed FTA, India has to remove 90 per cent of the tariff without assurance that the EU will lift subsidies disadvantageous to Indian agriculture. Manohar, however, clarified that the BJP is fundamentally not against the FTA when pointed out that the previous NDA government had also signed bilateral economic pacts.
He said a Constitutional amendment to ensure that the government does not enter into bilateral deals with foreign countries without political consultations or notification to the Parliament.