Exit trade treaties for growth

The WHO, acting on a complaint by the United States, has ruled that India’s National Solar Mission violates WTO because India uses domestically manufactured solar panels, which hits imports. This is absurd. India suffers from severe energy deficit, and by using home-made solar, we are solving the energy crisis, climate change and creating livelihoods. The WTO is only coming in the way forward for India.

Previously, in 2014, the WTO found that India was in violation because it paid farmers above acceptable rates while procuring food grains for ration shops, etc. Another absurdity, because even in 2014, agriculture was a mess, farmers’ suicides were regularly reported, and the sector needed our support.

In this era of climate change, agriculture is already severely hit, with last year’s erratic monsoon. Lakhs of Indians are in danger of sliding back into poverty. This will be exacerbated without our fighting energy poverty doggedly. Many will have the opportunity to live a better life if they have access to energy. And if, as our history with the WHO shows, trade agreements come in the way, they must be unquestioningly superseded.

India must at once work with the G77, with Small Island states, and other organisations of climate vulnerable actors, to ensure that trade agreements, particularly WTO, are rendered helpless in matters of sustainability and action to mitigate or adapt to climate change. We simply cannot guarantee a decent survival to millions of Indians without battling these outdated giants.

(The writer is director, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group)