NDDB opposes RCEP

Anand: The Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has strongly opposed the idea of opening up the Indian market to global milk producers at the cost of Indian dairy farmers.
As discussions on a proposal for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with milk-producing countries such as New Zealand and Australia under the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are under way, NDDB has demanded that the dairy sector should be kept outside the deal.
RCEP includes all 10 of the ASEAN countries as well as Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India and China.
“We are concerned about RCEP. We feel that it will be against the interest of milk producers, most of whom are small and marginal farmers,” NDDB chairman Dilip Rath said on Monday.
“Some of the countries with reduced duties will dump their products here and it will adversely affect livelihood of farmers. Our nutrition and food security will be jeopardised. We have communicated to the government that we are against RCEP,” said Rath, adding that the board has expressed its views to the government before two days.
A month back, NDDB had expressed similar views regarding RCEP to the centre. Rath said that the centre has started consultation process in which dairy co-operatives and private players have been invited.
It is worth mentioning here that the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation which markets Amul brand has also demanded to keep the dairy sector out of the FTA agreement.