自由贸易区对印度农业的影响(2)

英国Dissertation代写论文精选范文：“自由贸易区对印度农业的影响(2)”，这篇论文主要介绍了印度-欧盟自由贸易区议程的相关背景及发展过程。媒体报道显示，印度已经同意取消所有可贸易商品的百分之九十的关税，而正在进行的谈判的目的是进一步消除关税水平。

In 2008, alcoholic beverages account for almost half of the agriculture-related FDI in India. Beer consumption in India is growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the world. Major international players have ventured into the Indian markets. Several big European breweries such as Carlsberg (Denmark), Heineken (Netherlands), SAB Miller (United Kingdom) and InBev (Belgium) have invested millions of dollars in setting up of breweries in India. SAB Miller is the second largest player in the Indian beer market with an estimated share of 30 percent.

India's urban food market (estimated at $70 billion) is an important attraction for European retailers. The urban food demand is driven by higher disposable income, nuclear families, changing tastes and increase in processed food consumption especially by young professionals.

The Indian government has been gradually opening up retail business for FDI. Although foreign investment is still prohibited in multi-brand retail business,100 percent FDI is permitted in the wholesale cash-and-carry segment. Germany's biggest retailer, Metro AG, is already operating six wholesale stores in India. Metro plans to open as many as 50 wholesale stores by the year 2015. "Our target of 50 stores by 2015 won't be the end, we definitely see a potential of three-digit number for our stores here. I think the market potential for cash-and-carry business in India is huge,"said Eckhard Cordes, CEO of Metro during a recent visit to India.

The organized urban food market will witness a quantum leap once the government opens up multi-brand retail business for foreign direct investment. Multi-brand European retail giants such as Carref our and Tesco have already shown interest to invest in this segment in India. However, a free rein to European retailer may adversely affect the small and unorganized retailers which currently make up 99 percent of India's agricultural and food retail sector.

The emerging organized food market in urban India is facilitating the mushrooming of food processing sector which is currently growing at double-digit rates. The potential for food processing in India is tremendous considering only 2 percent of total vegetable production is processed, as compared to 65 percent in the US. Despite a liberal policy regime regarding FDI in food processing, 75 percent of output is generated by small producers in the unorganized sector.

The Indian authorities have envisaged an investment of $22 billion by domestic and foreign investors in the food processing industry by 2015. To stimulate food processing, the government has proposed the establishment of 60 agricultural export zones and 53 mega-food parks in the country. In addition, duty-free import of capital goods and raw materials, tax holidays and other concessions have been announced to encourage investments in food processing. Several European firms (e.g., Nestle, Unilever, Perfetti Van Melle) are already active in the food processing businesses.

Government Procurement

Every year, the Indian government procures food grains and other farm products directly from farmers. This procurement policy has twin objectives of ensuring minimum support price to the farmers and maintaining stockpiles of food to feed the poor through the public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes.

The media reports suggest that the Indian government has showed its willingness to open up government procurement to European companies under the proposed agreement. Although the exact details of opening up government procurement are not in public domain, such a move could constrain government's ability to deliver on food grain procurement and distribution system. Besides, it could undermine the ongoing efforts to decentralize the procurement and distribution system for improved food security and price stability. There are apprehensions that such provisions could compromise the government's ability to fulfil the right to food obligations. Currently, a National Food Security Act is under consideration.

The opening up of food procurement and distribution system raises a range of questions about adequate nutrition, cultural appropriateness, rural livelihoods, consumer costs and above all about food sovereignty.

Through the BTIA's intellectual property (IPR) provisions the power and control of agribusiness TNCs over seeds and biological resources is advanced far beyond WTO standards. IPR further the privatisation of seeds and intensify monopolies over seed, pesticides, fertilisers and animal vaccines. European majors like the German Bayer CropScience are already notorious in India for the seeds and agrichemicals they sell. An industry-conducive IPR environment encourages proprietary agriculture technologies - such as genetically modified (GM) crops and fish. This has serious implications, socially, ecologically and for human and animal health. The application of 'modern biotechnology' in agriculture both in the absence of independent assessment of the technology and a biosafety regime in place in India is already a controversial issue. The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2010 is pending in Parliament to regularise the use of GM in agriculture.

FTAs like this one that demand corporate breeder rights re-orient agricultural research and inhibit grassrootÂinnovation. This in turn undermines farmers freedoms, endangers biodiversity and thereby severely impacts the climate resilience of small farm agriculture. After WTO, many countries in the South were arm-twisted to provide for IPR on crop varieties through plant variety protection (PVP) laws that impose restrictions on farmers activities like limited seed-saving, resowing with limits, exchanging amongst themselves only for self use, etc. Currently India has a mild version of a PVP law - the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001. It attempts to reconcile farmers' freedoms over planting material and commercial interests of plant breeders seeking to market "new" crop varieties. EU had earlier insisted that like its trading partners India too have a UPOV 1991 compliant PVP law. UPOV Treaty and its 1991 version further curtail the natural rights of farmers and make them subject to the economic rights of corporate breeders. It brings in two big restrictions. One, that farmers can not save seeds other than for their own use, nor can researchers use the planting material freely. This strikes at the very root of both on-farm research and public science. Though it is believed that the current BTIA text does not make express mention of UPOV 1991 (as an earlier one did), but EU does insist on IPR on plant varieties.

In 2007, Claras ApS - a Danish company - filed patent applications at the European Patent Office for slimming agents supposedly 'invented' from ginger, turmeric, cumin and onion. This is despite the fact that uses of these spices and vegetables are well known in Ayurveda. The protection of traditional knowledge has long been a contentious issue between India and other bio-rich countries at the receiving end of 'bio piracy' from technology-rich Western countries. In the proposed articles on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge,EU is hesitant to concede to India's demand that mandatory disclosure of the origin and source of the genetic resources and traditional knowledge by the inventor/patent applicant be part of national patent regimes.

EU is aggressively pushing for the inclusion of geographical indications in its bilateral agreements.The proposed FTA with India also contains a very detailed section on geographical indications.A geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess certain qualities and characteristics related to that origin. Some of the well-known GIs includeBasmati rice, Darjeeling Tea, Scotch whisky and Champagne wine. The EU has already identified over 700 GIs from Europe for food and agricultural products. For EU, GIs are a means to secure market control over agricultural products especially in competition with big trading partners.

EU is keen to include provisions on sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) under the proposed FTA. These provisions limit the power of local communities and national governments to set their own standards in relation to biosafety, food safety and other health concerns. From available 'leaked' texts it is known that EU has asked for detailed provisions on SPS.EU-prescribed SPS standards would disallow Indian food products on the European market due to India's supposedly insufficient food producer traceability and market surveillance systems.

Since agriculture is a highly sensitive sector, the Indian government should carry out a fresh assessment of the benefits and costs of India-EU FTA. The purported gains in services sector should not be at the cost of the agricultural sector. It is astonishing that New Delhi is negotiating FTA with EU (and other trading partners) without any prior consultations with the state governments. The draft texts of the India-EU FTA and the substance of the negotiations have not been shared with the state governments. As per Indian constitution, agriculture falls under the jurisdiction of states and therefore it is imperative to involve state governments in all trade negotiations and build consensus, particularly on matters related agriculture and farm sector.

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