Food security: India rejects US proposal at World Trade Organization
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday rejected a US proposal at the World Trade Organization that sought to reopen the debate on food security
and said it is willing to thwart attempts by developed countries to
push through an agreement on trade facilitation by the end of the month,
without addressing the concerns of the developing and least developed
countries.
Senior commerce department officials told TOI that the US proposal was a delaying tactic. "We are yet to get the detailed document but they are going back to the pre-Bali days without addressing any of our concerns," a top-ranking officer said.
The strong resistance from India has now forced the WTO leadership to acknowledge its concerns on agriculture and convene a special meeting on July 23. "We paid a price for our demand on food security by agreeing to trade facilitation but they want to have their way. We will be forced into paying more for it if developed countries don't meet our demands now," a top commerce department official told TOI.
At the ministerial meeting in Bali last December, after a stiff fight put up by India, the WTO members had agreed to a work programme, which had three pillars. While they wanted an agreement on trade facilitation, which will make it easier to ship goods through ports and airports, there was a promise to address some of the concerns of the LDCs and also deal with India's long-pending demand to ensure that the rules on domestic support are reworked as several countries were close to breaching the prescribed subsidy limits.
Since then, however, a bulk of the work at WTO has focused on trade facilitation, on which there have been over 20 meetings, while there have been only two meetings of the agriculture committee.
"In Bali, we agreed in good faith that work will start but they have shown bad faith," said another commerce department official. The sources added that a permanent solution needs to be found by July 31, otherwise WTO should defer the deadline for the trade facilitation protocol.
Sources in the Indian government also attacked WTO director Roberto Azevedo for suggesting that India had agreed to an interim solution as a trade-off for the trade facilitation agreement. On July 10, Indian ambassador Anjali Prasad met the WTO boss in Geneva and is learnt to have said that "India is unwilling to make any further payment for food security" and suggested that a decision be taken by the end of the month.
"It is not a very time-consuming exercise, you need to decide on the modalities such as the inflation and the implementation details. If they have the will we can clinch it by the month-end," the top-ranking officer said.
Senior commerce department officials told TOI that the US proposal was a delaying tactic. "We are yet to get the detailed document but they are going back to the pre-Bali days without addressing any of our concerns," a top-ranking officer said.
The strong resistance from India has now forced the WTO leadership to acknowledge its concerns on agriculture and convene a special meeting on July 23. "We paid a price for our demand on food security by agreeing to trade facilitation but they want to have their way. We will be forced into paying more for it if developed countries don't meet our demands now," a top commerce department official told TOI.
At the ministerial meeting in Bali last December, after a stiff fight put up by India, the WTO members had agreed to a work programme, which had three pillars. While they wanted an agreement on trade facilitation, which will make it easier to ship goods through ports and airports, there was a promise to address some of the concerns of the LDCs and also deal with India's long-pending demand to ensure that the rules on domestic support are reworked as several countries were close to breaching the prescribed subsidy limits.
Since then, however, a bulk of the work at WTO has focused on trade facilitation, on which there have been over 20 meetings, while there have been only two meetings of the agriculture committee.
"In Bali, we agreed in good faith that work will start but they have shown bad faith," said another commerce department official. The sources added that a permanent solution needs to be found by July 31, otherwise WTO should defer the deadline for the trade facilitation protocol.
Sources in the Indian government also attacked WTO director Roberto Azevedo for suggesting that India had agreed to an interim solution as a trade-off for the trade facilitation agreement. On July 10, Indian ambassador Anjali Prasad met the WTO boss in Geneva and is learnt to have said that "India is unwilling to make any further payment for food security" and suggested that a decision be taken by the end of the month.
"It is not a very time-consuming exercise, you need to decide on the modalities such as the inflation and the implementation details. If they have the will we can clinch it by the month-end," the top-ranking officer said.
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