New Delhi, Aug 1 — The National Kisan Panchayat has criticised the revised WTO framework draft as against the interests of Indian farmers. It said that if the draft proposals are accepted it will devastate the livelihoods security of 650 million Indian farmers already reeling under an unprecedented fury of severe drought and ravaging floods. The WTO framework will strike a death-knell for the Indian farming community and play havoc with country’s food security.
“India should therefore rise to the occasion and demonstrate to the world that it will not succumb to any political pressure, and will protect and stand by its farming community,” Atul Anjaan, Devinder Sharma and Krishan Bir Chowdhary, the three members of the coordination committee, said in a joint press statement.
National Kisan Panchayat comprises of farmers organisations like All India Kisan Sabha, Bharat Krishak Samaj, Bharti Kisan Union, Bharti Khet Mazdoor Union, Andhra Pradesh Rayota Sangha, Punjab Kisan Sabha, Tamil Nadu Peasants’ Association, West Bengal State Krishak Sabha, Sanyukta Krishi Samiti and All India Kisan Sabha (Gopalan Bhawan).
The framework should have given a clear message that all subsidies in agriculture that the developed countries provide (close to US $ 320 billion), will be eliminated within a fixed timeframe for ensuring fair trade. India’s Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, had been very clearly and loudly making this point. But unfortunately, we find that the revised draft is quite rhetoric in expressing the concerns on domestic support without making any definite commitment. Moreover, the framework has provided for the inclusion of Blue Box subsidies, despite vehement opposition from India and other developing countries, an indication that the WTO has gone by the direction provided by the United States and the European Union, the farmers leaders alleged.
The National Kisan Panchayat leaders also said that the July 30 draft has acknowledged “Green Box criteria will be reviewed with a view to ensuring that Green Box measures have no, or at most minimal, trade-distorting effects or effects on production.” But the draft falls short of outlining the measures to discipline the subsidies under Green Box or for phasing out of such subsidies within a definite timeframe. It has in fact added an additional burden of Blue Box that the developing countries will now have to bear the burden of.
Since India has already phased out or removed its quantitative restrictions to meet the obligations of the Agreement on Agriculture without any reciprocal reduction in agricultural subsidies by the developed countries, there is no justification for India to accept anything before the subsidies in the rich countries are brought down or reduced to the same level as prescribed by the WTO. “We will not accept anything that compromises on the subsidy issue,” the statement warned.
source: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=64902 15jul2005
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