NGOs oppose proposed RCEP agreements

HYDERABAD: A movement organised by various NGOs against the

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

(RCEP) free trade agreement between members of the

Association of South East Asian Nations

which is expected to be formalised here in the city at the RCEP meet beginning from July 24 appears to be slowly gathering strength.

Several major farmers' organizations and prominent leaders met here to discuss the impact of the RCEP on farmers and milk producers. This is the second such meeting of the NGOs. In an earlier meeting, they discussed RCEP’s impact on drug prices and warned that several medicines that are now affordable will go out of reach of the common man once the partnership is formalised.

According to

Kirankumar Vissa

of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, and Ashalatha of Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch, RCEP is set to affect milk producers and the animal husbandry in India in ways that have not been witnessed in the past. Farmers are likely to lose their markets to cheaper products from other countries with their own produce set to come under a cloud under the proposed RCEP provisions. The NGOs claim that under the RCEP regime, import duties will be reduced to zero on most products - so the farmers and milk producers will be hit by cheap imports. Already, farmers across the country are agitating because of low prices pushing them into debt, they say and add that the situation will become even worse.

Prof. Kodandaram,the chairman of

Telangana Joint Action Committee

, said that with all these adverse impacts, the state and central governments should be convinced to oppose these agreements. He urged all the organizations to take this message to the public and the political parties.

The RCEP free trade summit in Hyderabad (July 24-28) is expected to bring government representatives from 16 countries to negotiate the RCEP agreement. These include Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and 10 South East Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

To protest the RCEP agreements, farmer unions, trade unions and various people’s organizations have formed a ‘People's Resistance Forum against RCEP and FTAs’ here in the city. A ‘People's Convention’ will be organized on July 23rd at

Sundarayya Vigyana Kendram

with participants and leaders from national and international level, the organisers said at the meeting held earlier this week.