WTO meet: India’s focus still on food security clause
The 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (MC11) began in the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires on Sunday, with India insisting on a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes while showing flexibility to have a work programme on services.
Trade minister Suresh Prabhu, who is leading a “multiministry delegation” to Buenos Aires, will also focus on protecting the interest of India’s artisanal fishermen from proposed elimination of fisheries subsidies. It is also likely to thwart any move by developed countries to push negotiations for setting global rules on e-commerce at MC11 holding that its domestic rules on the matter are in a flux.
While the Bali Ministerial in 2013 brought mixed results for India, with a “peace clause” on public stockholding for food security purposes bringing temporary reprieve from being challenged at the WTO in case of violation of public procurement ceilings, the Nairobi WTO Ministerial in 2015 was considered a setback given that, in its joint declaration for the first time, it recognised the divergence between developed and developing countries on pursuing with the Doha Development Agenda against India’s wishes.
The decision was considered by trade experts as nails in the coffin of the languishing Doha trade deal positioned to help
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developing and least developed countries in exporting more items to developed countries.
Indian trade officials speaking under condition of anonymity said India is open to WTO finalising a work programme on services that includes parts of its earlier proposal of trade facilitation in services (TFS).
India had aborted its plan to push for TFS in MC11 agenda as its traditional African allies were opposed to it.
On the proposal to eliminate fisheries subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, India is open to an agreement at the MC11 if special and differential treatment is ensured to developing countries, allowing them a longer stretch of time for compliance with protection for small and marginal fishermen.
However, given the reluctance of the US under the Donald Trump administration to constructively engage at the multilateral trade forum and its obstruction in appointing judges to the appellate body under WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism, most countries have pared down their expectations of significant outcomes at the conference.
“While the US is clear what it does not want, it is not clear what it wants. It has said that it does not expect any negotiating mandate at the MC11,” the trade ministry official quoted earlier said.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo in a statement to journalists on Saturday said prospects for progress on specific issues in Buenos Aires are unclear. “Members remain divided on many issues. Ministers may seek to reach agreement where possible, or commit to launching work programmes to take work forward. So we must keep making progress. We will harvest whatever we can in Buenos Aires, and lay the groundwork for further successes in future,” he added.
The writer is at Buenos Aires at the invite of India’s commerce ministry to cover MC11.