Impact of Free Trade Agreements & bilateral investments– insights on the laws in South Asia
Dr. Bhaskar Goswamy, Agriculture &Trade Policy analyst, New Delhi.
 There are 3 key players in the trade when we focus on North-South. They are US, European Union (EU) and Japan. There are again 3 common threats in engaging them in bilateral agreements: allowing patenting of life forms, agreeing to UPOV standards and agreeing to Budapest treaty on patenting micro organisms. And in most of these treaties the contents are open for the legal organizations only and not for commons.
Japan, till 2005 was not insisting on IPR standards. But, post 2007, it advocate for UPOV standards. It has been caught for prospecting too. In the treaty with Malaysia, UPOV has been brought indirectly, while Chile and Indonesia agreed to follow the standards. Philippines disagreed to the condition.
United States is a bully in terms of making clear its intensions. It insists on adherence to TRIPS conditions before signing any bilateral investment treaty. It has less interest in UPOV, as the former helps it in WTO negotiations directly with allies to support its moves. It also lays traps. For instance, when it extended aid to Pakistan in 2005, it included a condition that if the American companies in Pakistan fail to follow IPR, World Bank would compensate the penalty and it will be treated as a loan taken by Pakistan from World Bank! Similarly under Order 80, American companies were the primary seed providers for Iraq and Afghanistan. The promotion and export of GMVs has also been planned for 4 fold increase between 2010 and 2014 from 750 million tons to 2.5 billion tons, seriously threatening to contaminate the farmer varieties. Russia and China are also victims of this US assault as they have agreed to GMOs. The Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) of the US also influences all major agreements globally.
Finally, the EU is adopting a new colonization strategy by insisting on UPOV standards with countries like Egypt and Algeria.
We also face threats from China through Indo-Asian agreements as China does not have IPR regulations.
Thus, there is a danger of the trade practices and bilateral agreements nullifying the domestic achievements from our farmers, ultimately affecting their rights and livelihood.
Discussion
- UPOV is applicable only to field crops. It covers only a fragment of crops grown in India. We need to understand the crops and cropping pattern in India and come out with a new Trade law, based on our situations. The existing standards are based on EU and US standards. Malasia has made a mistake by signing UPOV without realizing the motives.
- The source of origin of the products has to be traced and the rights ensured.
- Responding to the suggestion of promoting a Regional Seed Bank for South Asia, Dr.Nagarajan suggested we should first attempt to share ‘data’ rather than ‘materials’ to develop a database of all common varieties, which would help in avoiding overlapping. But, Mr.Adhikari cited the disappearance of certain varieties over a period of time and the need to protect them safely through the Seed Banks.
- NGOs and Law Institutes have a big role to play and set a model for the government to follow.
- Proposals are neglected by the government. For example, Dr.Ramesh from NLSIU sent a proposal to Govt. of India to review the international laws based on domestic needs and circumstances. But the proposal was referred to Ministry of External Affairs by the ministry of Forests & Environment and later informed that there are enough experts in the government to deal with such issues. The NLSIU was advised to find ways of implementing the existing treaties instead. There were other experiences too which showcased the govt. not willing to hear from people like NGOs or field experts.
- Dr.Bala Ravi pointed to the lack of unanimity between the small groups like the South Asian countries at international fora. No consensus could be arrived on even non-economical issues like farmers rights. Individual interests always override the common issues. There is an urgent need to build issue based coalitions. India is fortunate to have space for democracy and prevention of international enforcements upon irresponsible governments.
- Dr.Nagarajan reiterated the need to strengthen our laws, registrations and gene banks as strong systems to overcome enforcements. We have to implement the existing laws and reward the farmers who contribute to our biodiversity.
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