EU-India overeenkomst moet ook sociale onrechtvaardigheid aanpakken (en)
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and India will give both our economies a massive shot in the arm. However, as we enter the final stretch of negotiations, the EU will pass up an historic opportunity to promote economic reform of this emerging powerhouse if it gives in to demands to drop the non-trade aspects of the deal.
The benefits of an FTA for both sides are exceptional. The EU is India's largest trading partner and a major strategic ally. Trade between the EU and India could more than double to €160 billion in the next five years alone. As the largest stable democracy in the world it is also a powerful example that emergent economies can also be pluralistic societies.
Free trade is often pilloried by some as a precursor for exploitation. This is not at all fair. More trade, particularly between smaller businesses and in the services sector, builds people-to-people links. It spreads ideas and it gives entrepreneurs on both sides access to wider markets and new opportunities.
Our challenge is to ensure that the benefits of this boom in free trade provide opportunities for everyone. My experiences in India confirmed that it has a poor class and an upper class, but there are nowhere near enough people in the middle. If the FTA simply makes the rich people richer, without encouraging a property-owning middle class, we will play into the hands of those people who deride free trade.
That is why I believe that the EU should stand firm in asking for commitments on sustainable development, and in ensuring that those commitments can be challenged in a standard dispute mechanism.
India still has some major social problems, not least the plight of the so-called "Dalits," the 166 million people in India who live as an effective underclass. The government has taken steps to uplift Dalits but these provisions do not apply to Dalits who choose not to remain Hindu. As human beings, these people have every right to participate on a level playing field in the marketplace, and in society, regardless of religion.
India's expansion has also come at a cost to its environment and its wildlife. India is far from being the greatest polluter: China produces four times more Greenhouse Gases. However, its emissions have risen by 58 percent since 1994, with over half coming from the energy sector. Of course to grow an economy a country needs cheap energy but if there is to be a green technology bubble in the coming years, why not use this FTA to encourage India to play a full part in it?
Child labour is a major problem. Up to 100 million children, the largest number of under 15-year olds in the world, are in work. I am a firm believer that overregulated labour markets stifle competition but, in India, cheap labour is coming at a heart-breaking cost. If we sign a deal that enables European companies to make use of child labour in any guise, we are complicit.
The EU and India both need this deal. I do not wish to tell India what to do and I have no intention of imposing our values on the Indian people. The British tried that in the 19th Century, resulting in the 1857 rebellion. However, I do hope that we can set out to the Indian authorities the reasons why we are required to include clauses in a trade deal that encourage fair and sustainable growth. Our voters require it.
Trade and investment automatically affect labour markets and the environment. It is not possible to separate the two out and to form an agreement on one aspect, without it having an impact on the others. The EU should not want to replace trade barriers with non-trade barriers but it does have an interest in ensuring that its actions have responsible consequences.
Rather than backing down in order to get this deal through, perhaps we should spend a little more time outlining the benefits to all of India if its economic expansion were sustainable and shared by all Indians.
Peter van Dalen i is a Dutch member of European Conservatives and Reformists group and a member of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with India
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