A day after India and the European Union announced the conclusion of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA), the government said the dairy sector would never be opened up to free trade till the time the BJP-led NDA dispensation was in power.
Under the agreement with the EU, India had fully protected sensitive products such as dairy, rice, wheat, pulses, tea and coffee by not granting any import duty concessions to the EU, said Darpan Jain, India’s chief negotiator for the deal, today.
He said the country had also safeguarded sensitive segments, including beef and poultry, fish and seafood, cheese, maize, corn, fruits and vegetables, nuts, edible oils, spices and tobacco.
This is not the first time India has protected its dairy sector. This segment has stayed protected in all eight FTAs India has concluded under the NDA dispensation and in other agreements concluded under erstwhile governments.
“Until the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in power, the dairy sector will not be opened up. In the agriculture sector, we see country-to-country and FTA-to-FTA. We also do not open up sensitive items of agriculture. If there are agricultural products that we are already importing, we can give some concessions. Certain products may be specific to ecological and climate zones. We can allow those, as they are not harmful. We have concluded eight FTAs so far, and no one has been able to find a single fault line in any of these,” a top Commerce Ministry source said.
The dairy and agriculture sectors have been key areas of concern in the long-awaited trade agreement between the United States and India as well, with Washington seeking greater access to Indian markets.
India produces nearly 239 million metric tonnes of milk annually, accounting for around 25 per cent of global production. Around 80 million of the country’s farmers are involved in dairy production, most of them operating on a small scale with just two or three animals. These farmers are dependent on consistent local demand and face disadvantages in competing with large-scale, industrial dairy producers from foreign players.
Meanwhile, India’s agricultural and processed food sectors are poised for a transformative boost, creating a level playing field for Indian farmers and agrarian enterprises under the trade agreement with the EU. It has secured preferential market access for its agricultural exports, boosting competitiveness for processed foods, tea, coffee, spices, table grapes, gherkins and cucumbers, sheep and lamb meat, sweet corn, dried onion and some other fruits and vegetable products.
An EU statement on the FTA says the deal opens up a sizeable market for European farmers by eliminating or lowering often prohibitive tariffs (over 36 per cent on average) on EU exports of agri-food items and there will be no liberalisation of sensitive European agriculture sectors like rice, sugar, or meat.
The EU outcome statement lists the following as examples for EU agri-food sectors that will benefit from the deal with India — wine, spirits, beer, olive oil, margarine, other vegetable oils, kiwis and pears, fruit juices, non-alcoholic beer, processed foods (breads, pastries, biscuits, pasta, chocolate & pet food), sheep meat, sausages and other meat preparations.
Source : Tribuneindia
