Prabhu reiterates India stand on food stocks at Morocco

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu ( pictured) said a permanent solution on the issue of public stockholding of foodgrain must be found at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Argentina this December.

At the WTO ‘mini ministerial’ meet in Morocco, which ended on Tuesday, the Indian government reiterated the stance that issues from the Doha Development Agenda needed to be uniformly reaffirmed.

In his first brush with the WTO system and the 35 trade ministers from key economies, after taking charge as commerce minister last month, Prabhu led discussions on behalf of developing economies. He stressed that older issues based on agriculture should be sorted before member nations move on to newer issues such as a proposed set of global rules for e-commerce.

WTO called the two-day Morocco meet to agree on an agenda for the December summit, a senior commerce and industry ministry official said.

Prabhu reiterated that the agreed objectives of the agriculture negotiations in the Doha Round be respected and to avoid further widening of imbalance between developed and developing countries. With over 600 million people dependent on agriculture in India, the government will be pushing the issue.

Prabhu has emphasised that a permanent solution on public stockholding must be a part of the outcomes achieved, saying a solution on this issue would be key in ending hunger and achieving food security, as mandated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal-II.

Recently, Brazil and the European Union came together on an offensive against farm subsidies given by India to its farmers. They had targeted all forms of subsidies, apart from those under the Minimum Support Price scheme, and called for a clampdown on export meant for public stockholding.

Developed countries provide huge subsidies to their own farmers, amounting to more than 90 per cent of global entitlements or nearly $160 billion. Pointing this out, India and China have jointly proposed a stop to this at the WTO.

A senior official said WTO chief Roberto Azevedo had privately agreed with India's positions. Both the contentious issues of public stockholding and a special safeguard mechanism in agriculture have not seen much progress at previous ministerial conferences.

Following India's agreement with the US on the issue in 2013, the Bali Ministerial Conference came up with the 'peace clause' that permitted uninterrupted implementation of India's food security programme till a permanent solution was found. This allows India to procure and stock foodgrain for distribution to the poor without being penalised by WTO members, even if it breaches the 10 per cent subsidy cap prescribed by the multilateral trade body.

The Doha Development Agenda, adopted in 2001 at the fourth ministerial conference, has not seen much progress in the past 16 years.