Food security, farmers key agendas for India
NEW DELHI: India will safeguard the interests of its farmers and fishermen, defend its massive food security programmes, seek a waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines, and oppose developed countries’ move to further extend the customs duty moratorium on electronic transmission of goods and services under e-commerce at the Twelfth Ministerial Conference ( MC12) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) being held in Geneva from Sunday, three people close to the negotiators said.
India’s position on all these matters is clear as the country, they said requesting anonymity.
“In India, millions of farmers own handkerchief size lands for subsistence. They cannot be left unprotected to face global competition from developed countries where large- scale commercial farming practices with astronomically high subsidies,” one of them said.
“Similarly, India has enacted a National Food Security Act (NFSA). Under that, highly subsidised grains procured by the government from farmers at MSP [minimum support price] are distributed to 800 million poor. The government’s massive ₹3.40 lakh crore free 5 kg dry ration per month under PMGKAY [ PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana] is in effect since April 2020,” he said. In March 2020, the government launched the scheme to save 800 million poor from starvation due to a 68-day nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 that year to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
India is leading a group of developing countries along with South Africa, seeking a temporary waiver for certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to provide universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and medicines to the poor countries.
“Interestingly, the Pope has also supported the humanitarian proposal led by India,” a second person, who will be present in MC12 at Geneva said.
Another key issue for India is related to e-commerce and the electronic transmission of goods and services.
“Developed countries want to extend the customs duty moratorium further as they are the major players in this domain. But, as per an estimate, developing countries are losing over $10 billion in revenues on this account. Besides, it is one of the major grey areas that need to be clarified,” a third person said.
ANOTHER KEY ISSUE FOR INDIA IS RELATED TO ECOMMERCE AND THE ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF GOODS AND SERVICES, OFFICIALS SAID
Agriculture
On the matters related to agriculture subsidy, minimum support price (MSP) for crops, and public stockholding ( PSH) mainly for food security purposes are some of the key issues for India because the country is committed to protecting its farmers and the poor, the person quoted in the first instance said. The G33 is a group of 47 developing and least developed countries, including India as its key member.
India, along with G33, is negotiating the issue of PSH for food security to secure flexibility for developing countries to use administered prices such as the MSP scheme to build food reserves without risking existing stock limits imposed by WTO by clubbing it with trade- distorting agriculture subsidy, he said.
A ‘peace clause’ was adopted at the Ninth Ministerial that was held in Bali in December 2013. It was an “interim solution” to avoid raising disputes under various provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) concerning PSH for food security purposes instituted before December 7, 2013, even if countries exceeded their permissible subsidy limits. It was also agreed to negotiate a permanent solution by the Eleventh Ministerial in 2017.