Farmers’ organisations and leaders discussed the adverse impact of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the stakeholders at a round table meet on ‘RCEP and Free Trade Agreements: Impact on Farmers and Milk Producers’ here, on Thursday.
TJAC chairperson M. Kodandaram said the State and Central governments should be convinced of the adverse effects of the agreement.
He urged all organisations to take this message to the public and the political parties.
MNC domination
Import duties will be reduced to zero on most of the products and the farmers and milk producers will be hit by cheap imports.
Already, farmers across the country are agitating because of low prices pushing them into debt and the situation will become worse due to RCEP.
Seed patents are required by the agreement which will increase the domination of MNCs in seed sector, a note from Rythu Swarajya Vedika informed.
In opposition
The meet was organised in the context of the RCEP free trade summit scheduled to be conducted in the city between July 24 and 28. A people’s convention will be held on July 23 at Sundarayya Vigyana Kendram.
There will be participants and leaders from national and international level, opposing the RCEP, he note said.
Prasad Rao, convenor of the People's Resistance Forum conducted the meeting, while the participants included Kiran Kumar Vissa, Ravi Kanneganti, Pasya Padma, Bontala Chandra Reddy, K.Sajaya, Achutharama Rao, D.Narasimha Reddy, and T.Sagar, Rukmini Rao, from various unions.