Asean FTA can be reviewed to protect farm interest: Antony

NEW DELHI: With Congress’ rivals stepping up attack on the government for signing free trade agreement (FTA) with Association of South East Asian

Nations (Asean), defence minister AK Antony on Tuesday promised to take corrective measures to insulate the agricultural sector.

“If there are shortcomings in the agreement, the group of ministers will recommend corrective measures,” reports from Kochi quoting the minister said.

The Cabinet sub-group, set up to study the impact of the FTA on the agricultural sector, is headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and includes overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi and Mr Antony. “This committee will hold talks with the state government and all other parties concerned,” Mr Antony said. “By 2020, we would be able to overcome all shortcomings with the proposed government help,” he added.

There was stiff resistance in the Cabinet over signing the treaty and Mr Antony himself had advocated caution. This opposition had prompted the prime minister to constitute a GoM.

Congress’ opponents have been using the issue to question the government’s commitment to farmers. “The Congress-led UPA has let down the people of this country and, more importantly, the farmers, who are the backbone of our economy, by signing the FTA. It will allow zero duty imports of items from January 1 next year into the country. Within the next four years 70% of imports from Asean will be without import duties and they will account for over 50% of India’s annual import bill. The farmers will be the key sufferers since the Asean countries have a comparative advantage in producing farm crops such as rice, palm oil and other plantation products,” Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said in a letter to the prime minister.

The SP leader also said the FTA would only make matters worse for the Indian farmer. “Indian exports are contracting (growing by minus 50%) at the moment. Global markets are disappearing. At the same time, India’s domestic demand is doing very well and is therefore bound to be a target of cheap imports. A commerce ministry note has warned that the increased market access for India will be 20% while it will be 75% for Asean. Clearly, the deal is loaded against India,” Mr Singh said. The SP leader said the prime minister or the government have not bothered to take Parliament into confidence.

“This is despite the fact that several Congress ministers raised objections in the Cabinet meeting called to approve the deal. The prime minister has failed the nation yet again by showing that the rest of the world is more important than India, and this deal was signed just 8 days before India’s 63rd Independence Day,” Mr Singh wrote in his letter to the prime minister.