India seems ready to settle for a short-term solution to the problem surrounding its food security legislation that breaches the permissible subsidy levels set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The country may agree to a ‘peace clause’ which provides a temporary reprieve from penalties in the event that the subsidy level is breached.

In what will be a further softening of stance, India may also agree to the demand of developed countries for a pact to facilitate movement of goods across borders.

But Commerce Minister Anand Sharma does not see these concessions as a dilution of India’s earlier stand. It is about finding a middle ground that is acceptable to all, he said.

At a joint press conference with WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo here on Monday, Sharma said, “You don’t do negotiations with a tight list and say this is the final list. I don’t want any ambiguity on food security. Its legitimacy has been appreciated, and the negotiators will find an acceptable solution to that.”

At the WTO, the developed countries are willing to offer a ‘peace clause’ that will allow developing nations, such as India, legal protection against action by other members for breaching food subsidy limits prescribed under the agriculture pact. This would be offered for a two/three-year period within which time the members hope to find a long-term solution to the issue.

WTO members are trying to arrive at an agreement on a small package of issues, which includes Trade Facilitation and Food Security, at the forthcoming Ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

“There is appreciation of the legitimacy of food security concerns in India and other developing countries. Work is going on intensely to find a solution, which will probably include a ‘peace clause’. Conversation for a long-term solution will happen very meaningfully after Bali,” said the WTO Director-General, who is in India to seek the country’s support for making the Ministerial a success.

Sharma said that India too favours a Trade Facilitation pact as long as it is balanced and serves the interests of both developed and developing countries.

Azevedo, who also addressed industrialists at meets organised by the CII and the FICCI, said that the Bali Ministerial was not the end of the road for the Doha Round. “It is one first step towards an agenda that we have to define for the WTO that delivers on areas of interest in developing and developed countries alike,” he said.

> amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in

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