India slams rich nations over resource inequity

NEW DELHI: India criticised the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly rich countries, accusing them of not doing enough to tackle the crises brought on by the pandemic and rising food prices, which put millions of people in poor nations at the risk of starvation.

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal made the remark while representing India at the plenary session of the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the WTO on Sunday, where he urged members to help the least developed countries (LDCS) recover from the pandemic and access foodgrain supplies that have undergone high global inflation because of the war in Ukraine.

“The pandemic reinforced the importance of ‘One Earth One Health’, calling for global solidarity and collective action,” he said, referring to India’s effort in ramping up supplies of medical products globally and providing Covidessential items, including vaccines, to several countries. “Unfortunately, the WTO could not respond with alacrity. We have let down the people of the LDCS and developing countries. The rich countries need to introspect! We need to bow our heads in shame for our inability to respond to the pandemic in time,” he said in his address.

Goyal drew attention of the multilateral forum to the humanitarian crisis triggered by spiralling food inflation and called it a “matter of deep concern”, while also underscoring the importance of nurturing domestic capacities to produce food. “Rising food prices threaten the survival of millions and subjugate the poor and vulnerable nations/people to imperfect markets,” he said.

India, which is supporting its 800 million poor through food security programmes such as the ₹3.4-crore scheme under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY),

UNION COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL URGED MEMBERS AT THE WTO MEETING TO HELP THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES RECOVER FROM THE PANDEMIC