Farmers Observe Quit WTO Day with Tractor Rally
Farmers Observe Quit WTO Day with Tractor Rally
WTO is forcing India to limit its ongoing subsidies including market price support to farmers so that an equitable international agriculture trade regime could be established.
By RMN News Service
The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) held a tractor demonstration today (February 26) to oppose the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) toward the Indian farm sector. The day was observed as Quit WTO Day.
SKM – which is a group of a few farmer organizations mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) states – complains that WTO is forcing the Indian government of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi to make anti-farmer laws.
According to SKM, it is one of the main reasons that the Modi government is not accepting farmers’ demand of providing a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) on 23 crops.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, WTO with a membership of 164 countries regulates and facilitates international trade in cooperation with the United Nations (UN) System. Since India has been a WTO member since 1995, it cannot afford to defy WTO regulations.
[ Website Launched to Cover Farmers Protests in India ]
WTO is forcing India to limit its ongoing subsidies including market price support to farmers so that an equitable international agriculture trade regime could be established. The WTO objective is to encourage free trade without any trade protection in any country.
The tractor rally of SKM coincides with the 4-day WTO ministerial conference which begins today (February 26) in Abu Dhabi. The protesting farmers are asking the Modi government to discontinue India’s membership with WTO and accept farmers’ demands including MSP.
Along with SKM, a couple of more farm unions – Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) – are holding separate protests on Haryana-Punjab borders since February 13 against the Modi government.
The Haryana government under the Modi regime has been using brutal police force to stop the movement of farmers who want to reach Delhi to hold a permanent protest in the national capital.
