[Ip-health] The Guardian - The EU is pushing an unsavoury free trade deal

[Leena Menghaney]

Gaurdian.uk
EU tramples on India's poor
The EU is pushing an unsavoury free trade deal that would force India to
give up control of its banking sector and drugs industry

David Cronin, Friday 6 November 2009

The punishing schedules that world leaders follow don't leave much room for
reflection. So I suspect that senior EU figures visiting New Delhi today are
not dwelling on the enduring relevance of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings, even
as they lay a wreath in his honour at the Raj Ghat memorial. Nor are they
sifting through the abundant evidence in present-day India that proves
Gandhi's aphorism: "Poverty is the worst form of violence."

The European commission hopes that the latest annual summit can give a new
impetus to talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive free trade agreement
between the two sides. Three years ago India was identified as the second
most important "emerging" market on the radar screen of trade officials when
the commission issued Global Europe, a blueprint for enabling rich
multinational companies to penetrate every corner of the globe. The first
was South Korea, with which the EU clinched a trade agreement in October.

Peter Mandelson, the EU's trade commissioner for much of this decade,
continues to present India as an economic titan, telling the UK-India
Business Council that he viewed the launching of free trade talks with New
Delhi as one of his greatest achievements. When he arrived in Brussels in
2004, Mandelson was "struck by a sense that Europe didn't quite get the pace
of Indian change and the implications for the global economy", he said.

What Mandelson didn't say is that hundreds of millions of Indians have been
excluded from the benefits of the robust growth that left him so mesmerised.
Just as he famously mistook mushy peas for guacamole, he seems to think that
India comprises only a burgeoning middle class and gleaming skyscrapers.
That India has one of the highest concentrations of poor people on this
planet has escaped his attention. Estimates of what proportion of its
billion-plus inhabitants subsist on less than a dollar a day vary from about
40% (according to the World Bank) to nearly 80% (according to a report in
2007, commissioned by the Indian government). Regardless of which source is
most accurate, it's clear that extreme hardship is widespread.

Mandelson's successor in Brussels, Catherine Ashton, isn't any better. She
has kept the trade talks with India high on her list of priorities. She has
also kept the details of the discussions secret to ensure that they will not
be subject to anything as irksome as democratic scrutiny. Still, drafts of
the agreement that her aides are pushing India to sign have leaked. And
their contents are frightening.

An analysis by the fair trade organisation Traidcraft has exposed how the
EU's preferred agreement is driven by the flawed thinking that helped cause
the financial crisis. As part of a deregulation agenda, India would be
required to effectively cede control of its banking sector to the masters of
global capitalism. Foreign banks are currently allowed to open only 12 new
branches in India per year; the EU is pushing vigorously for that
restriction to be scrapped.
Worse, the EU is demanding that India should accept standards of
intellectual property that go beyond those agreed at the World Trade
Organisation. Once the related provisions enter into force, India would have
to tailor its evolving patent regime more to serve the profits of
pharmaceutical corporations than the medical needs of its population.
India's status as a leading manufacturer of low-cost generic drugs would be
imperilled if EU trade officials and their chums in the pharmaceutical
industry have their way.

It is scandalous that the unsavoury consequences of the free trade agreement
are receiving scant attention from the mainstream press in both Europe and
Asia. Awed by free trade rhetoric, The Business Standard in India has
reported that the negotiators are striving to create an "almost Lennonesque
utopia", where Indian lawyers will be able to practise freely in Spain and
aspiring epicures in Delhi could "enjoy a buttery glass of French wine
without having to spend a month's wage on it". The Japan Times, meanwhile,
has noted that the EU is vying with Japan to first sign a free trade
agreement with the Delhi government. "The race for India is on," the paper
says, a conclusion that should make anyone with a knowledge of the country's
history shudder.

"The weak can never forgive," Gandhi also said. "Forgiveness is an attribute
of the strong." India's poor have every right to be incensed at how their
government is being pushed into signing trade agreements that are inimical
to their interests. Forgiveness for the harm inflicted on the poor probably
won't be sought; it certainly won't be granted.

Link to story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/06/eu-india-free-trade-deal
/print

Leena Menghaney

Campaign Co-ordinator (India)
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
New Delhi
Tel: +91 11 46573731, +91 11 46573730
leenamenghaney@gmail.com