EDITORIAL
India on Tuesday strongly conveyed to the WTO members that the focus of talks on agricultural issues should not be narrowed down to the trade interests of agri-exporting countries only.
During the WTO negotiation session on agriculture here, India also said that without a permanent solution on the public stockholding issue, the most critical and long- pending mandated issue at the WTO (World Trade Organisation), developing countries’ fight against hunger cannot be won.
“In this session, India made a strong and compelling argument to finalise the permanent solution to Public Stockholding (PSH) and deliver this outcome at MC13, as this has been pending for 11 years,” the Commerce Ministry said.
WTO member countries have gathered here for the 13th ministerial conference (MC13), which started on February 26. MC is the highest decision-making body of the WTO.
“India argued that the focus should not be narrowed down to the trade interests of exporting countries only, the real concern is the food security and livelihood of people,” it said.
The 19-member Cairns group lobbies for agricultural trade liberalisation. It was formed in 1986 in Cairns, Australia. The members include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, and Peru.
In the meeting, India also recalled the vast differences in the actual per-farmer domestic support provided by different countries, as notified to the WTO. Some developed countries provide subsidies which are 200 times more than the subsidies provided by the developing countries.
It was the membership’s duty to ensure a level playing field in international agriculture trade for millions of low-income or resource-poor farmers, the ministry said adding the permanent solution to the PSH has to be delivered and after that, it is important to protect the treaty-embedded Special and Differential Treatment provision in the Agreement on Agriculture.
“India stated that any derogation in this regard would be unacceptable,” it said. “After that, if any discussion on reduction of domestic support commitments take place, the process should start with eliminating subsidies for countries who provide massive subsidies on a per capita basis,” the Ministry said.
