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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Setback for India: WTO draft text silent on country’s demands -Kirtika Suneja

Setback for India: WTO draft text silent on country’s demands -Kirtika Suneja

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published Published on Dec 18, 2015   modified Modified on Dec 18, 2015
-The Economic Times

NAIROBI: In a major setback to India, the first draft of the WTO's committee on agriculture is silent on the two issues that the country has been pitching for- a permanent solution for food security concerns and a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) to protect from sudden surges in imports. 

The draft has dismissed the SSM issue in a few lines and linked it with the broader context of agricultural market access. 

The draft, circulated unofficially does not represent a consensus. Such texts only aim to find common ground on the issues being negotiated. 

The draft will go through intense negotiations during the course of the day giving India a chance to put its point. 

''It has only taken into account import surges due to tariff cuts by developed countries and completely ignored the fact that subsidies given by developed countries to their farm products also cause more imports,'' said an expert. 

On the issue of a permanent solution for food security, the draft is silent on the framework by which such a solution is found unlike the previous decision of the General Council which had 2017 as the deadline. 

''The draft agriculture text is a huge disappointment to developing countries and those who came here hoping for progress on key agricultural issues especially public stockholding for food security and SSM for import surges. The US and the developed countries have not offered anything on these areas,'' said Timothy A. Wise director the Policy Research Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. 

EXPORT COMPETITION 

The widening differences in the talks are becoming obvious as the text mostly takes from the US proposal with a lot of best endeavour language and allows dumping of food through food aid. 

On phasing out export subsidies, the draft has given a greater leeway to developed countries for eliminating these by 2020 as against the EU's earlier proposal of 2018. 

However, the phase out deadline is tighter for developing countries which have to eliminate these sops by 2023 while the EU proposal had earlier suggested 2026 as the deadline. 

As regards state-trading enterprises (STEs), the draft says that the use of export monopoly powers by such agricultural exporting enterprises should not have trade distorting effects or result in displacing or impeding the exports of another member. This could have an impact on Indian STEs like Nafed, STC and MMTC, which import farm products. 


The Economic Times, 17 December, 2015, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/setback-for-india-wto-draft-text-silent-on-countrys-demands/articleshow/50218205.cms?from=mdr


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