RSS-affiliate asks Suresh Prabhu to look into farmer issue

New Delhi: In a letter to Union commerce minister Suresh Prabhu, RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Sunday raised concerns over issues, including e-commerce, agriculture and investment facilitation, which it feels is being “pushed in the negotiations” of the World Trade Organisations (WTO), whose mini-ministerial meeting began in Morocco from Sunday.

Supporting the government’s proposal on eliminating the Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) in the agriculture sector, the SJM has said that while agriculture “is a key issue for India and the majority of its population, developed country subsidies, in particular the AMS, are hurting farmers in India”.

SJM’s national co-convenor Ashwini Mahajan has asked the government to “push on this proposal, while making it very clear that the development subsidies we get cannot be touched as these represent an important tool to support farmers in developing countries. More than 100 developing countries support us in this endeavour. India can create a good atmosphere in WTO in support of billions of small farmers in the world.”

Another issue that the SJM has highlighted is that for a permanent solution, public stockholding to be allowed without limits. It has asked the government not to accept “very difficult compliance conditions, including those set out under the Peace Clause, which makes it almost impossible to use.”

On the e-commerce issue, the SJM feels that it is a “complex and unknown area where the entire future of the country is potentially impacted. It can restrict future economic policy-making and curb the government’s ability to regulate giant e-companies. India should not be giving away a critical raw material like data for free to large corporations in the West to profit from affecting future manufacturing policy space.”

The SJM said it is also “extremely worried about proposals on investment facilitation that are being pushed in the negotiations” as what “starts off as simple ‘facilitation’ can end up as crucial commitments on investor protection and market access.”