New Delhi: The Government's move to go in for more Free Trade Agreements with Asian countries has run into difficulties with Congress President Sonia Gandhi asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to "very carefully scrutinise" India-ASEAN FTA to safeguard interests of domestic farmers.
In a letter to Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi said she was concerned about the FTAs being signed by the government as the country’s domestic agriculture sector was in distress, particularly in areas like edible oil, coffee, tea and pepper.
The letter says, “The Congress party therefore feels that instead of opening up the agricultural and manufacturing sector through FTAs, more effective domestic policy measures need to be adopted to protect and strengthen the growers and manufacturers in these sectors.”
Sonia’s opposition to FTAs comes at a time when the Prime Minister has advocated the need to go ahead with FTAs with several Asian countries in a bid to move towards a pan-ASEAN FTA.
On May 3, the Prime Minister’s trade and economic relations committee met to clear some of the thorny issues in the India-ASEAN FTA negotiations while approving PTA with Mauritius and South African customs union.
Sonia Gandhi said she was writing to Singh after bringing the matter to the notice of Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
Comments
0 comment