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India will push for an early breakthrough in the proposed global pact on food security at the informal meet of select trade ministers from World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries in Paris on Thursday.
The G-33 group of developing countries, which wants an agreement allowing flexibilities in subsidies to poor farmers, is concerned about developed countries ignoring their interests.
“While there has been considerable enthusiasm on an agreement on trade facilitation being promoted by developed countries at the WTO, similar willingness to negotiate on the developing countries’ proposal for allowing flexibility in giving subsidies to poor farmers has been missing,” a Commerce Department official said.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will represent India at the meet being hosted by Australia on the sidelines of the annual ministerial council meeting of OECD countries.
The WTO meet, to be chaired by Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson, will include ministers from Indonesia, Japan, the US, the European Union, India, China, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Chile, New Zealand, Turkey and South Africa, among others.
The ministers will try to narrow gaps on a small package of issues to arrive at an agreement during the ministerial meet in Bali in December. The issues have been carved out of the decade-old Doha Round of negotiations that has been deadlocked. Both trade facilitation and food security are on the proposed list of items chosen for an early agreement.
The G-33, led by Indonesia and India, has proposed that acquisition of food stocks by developing country members with the objective of supporting low-income or resource poor farmers should not be counted as trade distorting support.
It feels that such support, which includes public procurement of food at minimum support prices, should not be part of the aggregate measurement of support subjected to disciplines, failing which penalties are imposed.
If the limit on the so-called trade distorting subsidies is not lifted, India could breach it once the Food Bill is implemented.
India will argue that the developed world, too, had market price support programmes and was able to move away from these – though not fully even now – because of greater resources, which is not possible for developing countries.
“India has shown great flexibility in the trade facilitation negotiations and has accommodated the viewpoints of developed countries. It expects the same sincerity from developed countries on the issue of food security,” the official said.
The trade facilitation agreement is aimed at harmonising customs procedures and fixing time limits for clearance of goods in order to cut down on transaction costs.
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