NEW DELHI - Influential voices close to the Indian government have intensified their opposition to India's entry into the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership deal, as negotiations among the 16 trading partners enter the final lap.
The RSS is a socio-political organisation that shares close umbilical links with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and wields influence over the government. SJM's national spokesman Deepak Sharma told The Straits Times that the RCEP in its current form would adversely affect more than 100 million dairy farmers, small and medium-scale industries as well as marginal farmers in India."They will not be able to compete," he said.
A statement from SJM's national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said that the World Trade Organisation's Information Technology Agreement, which seeks to lower taxes and tariffs on IT products by signatories to zero, had been responsible for the virtual decimation of India's hardware industry. This, according to him, throws into doubt claims about the RCEP increasing the competitiveness of Indian manufacturing.
The BJP has been mindful of opposition to RCEP. On Monday , it organised a roundtable conference on RCEP and other free trade agreements at its headquarters with party officials, economists, industry executives, former government officials as well as activists. A report from the proceedings will be submitted to the government.