Free Trade Policies and Impact on Sustainable Development, Social and Gender Justice: A Case Study of the EU-India Free Trade Agreement

Workshop organized by Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF), Centad, Intercultural Resources (ICR), Focus on the Global South, India and WIDE (Brussels)

Date: 13-14 November 2009, Time: 9:30am-6:00pm.

Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi

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Concept Note:

At the end of August India’s new Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 entered into force. The new Foreign Trade Policy lays out ambitious objectives in times of the challenging worldwide economic, food, fuel and climate crises. Commerce Minister Sharma states “We would like to achieve an annual export growth of 15% over 2010-11 with an annual export target of $200 billion by March 2011. In the remaining three years of this Foreign Trade Policy, the country should be able to come back on the high export growth path of around 25% per annum. By 2014 we expect to double India’s exports of goods and services. The long term policy objective for the government is to double India’s share in global trade by 2020" Though the global recession has not affected India to the same extent as other economies of the world, yet Indian’s exports have suffered a decline in the last 10 months due to a contraction in demand in the traditional exports’ to developed countries. To insulate Indian exports from the decline in demand from developed countries, a policy focus is on diversification of Indian exports to other markets, especially those located in Latin America, Africa, parts of Asia and Oceania. Still, India’s commitment to conclude the WTO Doha Round as well as ongoing North-South free trade agreement negotiations such as the EU-India FTA negations, figure prominently on the agenda. Based on the neo-classical theory of a positive relationship between openness to international trade and growth, trade liberalisation is promoted as an engine of development and a solution to the current economic crisis. However, the immense poverty problem India is facing and the rising inequality, aggravated by the financial and economic crisis, the food and fuel crisis – interlinked crises which are partly originating in the deregulation and liberalisation policies of the last decades- are posing tremendous challenges on India. Given the threat that FTAs ‘considerably reduce or fully remove policy options and instruments available to a developing country to pursue its development objectives', an important question to be addressed is what kind of macroeconomic and trade policies are needed that serve the interest of sustainable economic development, poverty eradication, gender equality and women's social and economic empowerment. Based on a number of recent studies in the framework of the ongoing EU-India FTA negotiations the workshop examines the impacts of free trade policies on specific sectors. Special attention is hereby given to impacts on gender equality as integral part of sustainable development and social justice. The meeting will unbundle linkages between trade, development and gender and offers the possibility to discuss approaches and strategies to shape trade policies in such a way that they respond to sustainable development, poverty eradication, gender and social justice. It aims at building further alliances among interested civil society actors, academics, media and women’s groups and enables collective thinking toward an action plan for promoting a just and equitable trade agenda.

Objectives of the workshop:

• Enhance understanding of impacts of free trade policies on specific sectors 
• Present the findings of the recent studies on possible impacts of EU-India FTA on gender equality and receive feedback on them
• Highlight the importance of gender in the trade discourse and of integrating it in ongoing campaigns on FTAs (and WTO).
• Build synergies for promoting a just and equitable trade agenda 

Download Power Point Presentations and Papers:

13.11.2009 

Devaki Jain , Christa Wichterich, "Ranja Sengupta and Narendra Jena,  Ranja Sengupta and Roopam Singh, Indrani Mazumdar,  "Bansari Nag, Ranja Sengupta and Ashutosh Sharma, Maitreyi Krishnan,

14.11.2009 

Rashmi Banga, Barbara Specth,
Summary from Day I - The Impact of Free Trade Policy on Manufacturing.

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