The Hindu Business Line : `WTO deal favours the rich'; Left plans stir

THE Left parties on Monday said they plan to launch an agitation against the global trade deal struck by WTO member countries at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting.

Terming the revised Ministerial text adopted at the meet as being heavily loaded in favour of the developed world, the Left said the move by the US and EU to waive the agricultural subsidies by the year 2013 was merely a "post-dated cheque of very little value."

On being asked whether the Left plans to raise the issue in Parliament, the CPI(M) General Secretary, Mr Prakash Karat, said: "There is no legislation here... the resistance would have to be outside Parliament."

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the declaration adopted at Hong Kong made it clear that the global trading system continued to be weighed in favour of the developed nations.

"The role of the Government of India in these negotiations has not produced an outcome that adequately protects the interests of the farmers and the country," the CPI(M) said in a statement.

"We have allowed major concessions like decreasing the tariff on almost 80 per cent of our products along with lifting the cap on foreign direct investment and allowing the multinational corporations to participate in the Government procurement process. This is a deal where the developing countries were losing much more with hardly any gain," the Left parties said.

They said the agreement on agriculture, NAMA, services and TRIPS would prove detrimental to the interests of Indian farmers and the agriculture sector.

"The gains made in areas like grant of more HIB visas and business process outsourcing (BPO) which were of interest to a small section of the people cannot be justified," they said.

The CPI(M) said the commitment of developed countries to eliminate export subsidies to agriculture products by 2013 was no achievement as they account only for 3.5 per cent of the total subsidies.

"Our primary interest should have been to ensure the protection of small and marginal farmers. The special safeguard mechanism proposed will not be sufficient in the light of the fact that we have already agreed to further cuts in agricultural tariffs," the CPI(M) added.

India Inc welcomes deal: Meanwhile, India Inc has responded favourably to the Hong Kong ministerial, with the CII saying the deal secures the interests of India and other developing countries.

The CII Vice-President, Mr R. Seshasayee, welcomed the inclusion of paragraph 8 flexibilities as integral parts of the modalities.

"This is expected to help developing countries have some less than formula cuts for a few sensitive products as well as keep some tariff lines unbound," said the chamber.

On agriculture, it felt that the availability of special safeguard mechanism and special products for developing countries was an important development that would safeguard the interests of Indian farmers against surge of highly subsidised imports from other countries.