SME rules, gender rights: Rich nations push for diverse issues at WTO to derail agri talks
From rules for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gender rights in global trade, developed nations are pushing for a stream of issues for discussion at next month’s meet of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and this may push the agriculture debate off track, India fears.
The WTO’s biennial ministerial conference is due next month in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is expected to set the discussion and norms on sectoral issues for at least two years. While India has decided to focus on seeking a permanent solution to the issue of public food stockpiling and caps on domestic subsidies to agriculture, the developed world including Canada, the US, and the EU are pushing for nonissues to sidetrack things, senior government officials say.
Member-nations are allowed to put up proposals for discussions at Geneva-based headquarters of the WTO for discussion in the conference. “Just before the official ministerial negotiations start, this is the time which we call the silly season in Geneva,” J S Deepak, India’s ambassador at the WTO, said, referring to the flurry of proposals being put up by member-nations. However, this is worrisome because many of these proposals run counter to India’s interests, while also reducing the space for discussion on long-pending agricultural issues, which most of the richer nations are not willing to engage on, he added.
Deepak said the move towards discussing a set of global rules for facilitating trade by SMEs would harm India’s interests since there was no decision to define an SME currently at the WTO. The proposal by a group of rich nations revolves around providing trade benefits to such enterprises based on size. On the other hand, India and other developing nations have always argued that benefits should be based on special and differential treatment, currently allowed to such nations in global trade. “Under the proposal, our SMEs are so small as to not be able to take advantage of any possible benefits or are too large for the WTO’s consideration,” Deepak said. He added that with the overwhelming majority of India’ s manufacturing capacity resting in the SME sector, the proposal was alarming.
The usually fractured opinions at the WTO have come in for a further beating this time as slow global trade growth and rising protectionist tendencies on the part of major players such as the US have sharply divided the global community on key issues. Last month, the WTO had broken conventional practice to call a two-day mini-ministerial meet in Morocco for agreeing on agenda details for the December conference. However, deep differences remained among member nations, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia had told an industry gathering last week.