FTAs are a playbook for a neocolonial takeover of India’s economic and digital sectors.
September 1, 2025
SITARA has been campaigning to promote India’s national economic interest and digital sovereignty for years now.
In our several letters (here, here, here and here) to the highest levels of Government – we have consistently opposed opening public procurement to foreigners – as it is the only effective Industrial Policy tool for promoting high-tech indigenous development, urged safeguarding digital sovereignty, given suggestions for effective implementation of industrial policy (links to only a few given here as some were requested to be kept confidential) and made other interventions for India’s safety and national security.
SITARA members have written articles (and this) on the lopsided commitments made/ proposed to be made in the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which will seriously undermine India’s economic sovereignty – example – the UK has opened only a tiny handful of departments for public procurement against India’s opening up ALL major Ministries.
So we are happy to see the Forum for Trade Justice take up the cause – link to letter is here – as it represents a much wider section of society, which SITARA wants to connect with as this is a cause of national importance. Their letter strongly urges the need to oppose tariff blackmail, listing the following areas where India cannot afford to compromise (Govt has declared it will not compromise on agriculture and dairy imports, and hopefully on all matters that would damage India’s agricultural sector) much as SITARA has done:
- Opening its government procurement market
2. Allowing unrestricted cross-border data flows
3. Implement sharing of government public data with US entities
4. Surrendering right to source code disclosure
5. Providing commitments to purchase defence equipment, aircraft, and energy from the US, removing sovereign decision making authority on critical issues.
6. Agriculture and dairy, including genetically modified (GM) food
7. Evergreening of patents on pharmaceutical products
8. Accepting ‘voluntary licensing’ vs the option of ‘compulsory licensing’ of unaffordable medicines
9. Commitments not to impose taxes on exports of US digital products
The letters goes on to say:
“In short, any proposed India-US bilateral deal is less about ‘fair trade’ and more about reshaping India’s foreign and domestic policies to suit Washington and its economic and geo-political interests. It does not even remotely resemble the type of trade agreements made by two equal sovereign powers. In its haste to meet the deadlines set by the Trump administration along with its hardened stance, India may undermine its sovereignty — which is defined as its capacity to make independent policy decisions in the best interests of its own citizens”.
There has to be a nation-wide debate before our national interest are irretrievably compromised.
About The Author
