CPI(M) URGES GOVT.TO STAND UP ATWTO DESPITE ISOLATION INDIA UNDER FIRE AS FOOD IMPASSE IMPERILSWTO

Amid reports of India being isolated on the issue of food security at the ongoing ninth World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Bali, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday said India should not give in to the “unjust pressure’’ from the WTO Secretariat, the European Union and the United States.

India, according to the CPI(M), should continue to press for fundamental changes in WTO rules so that food subsidy programmes are not designated as illegal. About the ‘peace clause’ under discussion, the party said it would be effective only for four years and does not guarantee that a permanent solu- tion could eventually be negotiated.

“Further, the conditions sought to be imposed for invocation of the ‘peace clause’ provision are severe and would make it virtually impossible for any developing country to use it. The proposed ‘peace clause’ is by no means a fair resolution of the issue and should be rejected by India.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 05, 20 (AFP) - India on Thursday faced mounting pressure to compromise in a global impasse over food security that has cast the future of the World Trade Organisation into doubt.

New Delhi's insistence that it be allowed to stockpile and subsidise grain for its millions of hungry poor has emerged as a major stumbling block at a WTO conference of trade ministers in Bali. The WTO has warned that failure to reach a compromise on that and other issues could provide the nail in the coffin for the body's 12-year-old effort to remove trade barriers, which are at a stalemate.