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India warned developed nations that there was no escape from either a permanent solution on food security or text-based negotiations on public stock holding and MSP ceilings at the WTO, as some members, such as the US, the UK, the EU and Japan, attempted to junk the Bali interim decision that gave developing nations immunity against penal action for breach of food subsidy caps.
New Delhi’s intervention was at a meeting of the WTO Committee on Agriculture in Geneva this week where discussions began on the possible outcomes on food and agriculture at the upcoming 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February 2024 in Abu Dhabi.
“India emphasised on three nos– no escape from a permanent solution (on food security), no escape from text-based negotiations, and no excuse for (a tight) timeline. It criticised non-proponents (of its proposal on food security) for their lack of will to show flexibility,” a Geneva-based official privy to the CoA meeting told businessline.
It is crucial for India, and many other developing countries who support their poor farmers through MSP or other similar programmes, to get a permanent solution on public stockholding as under the WTO rules a country can be penalised by another if the subsidy for procurement of any crop exceeds 10 per cent of the production value.
The Bali interim agreement, reached in 2013, provides a peace clause that insulates developing countries against action if their subsidy breaches the given limit but it is subject to onerous conditions including submission of copious data and subjective clauses such as the subsidies not harming the food security of another country.
A large number of developing countries, which includes the African Group, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, and G33 Group, which has India as a member, sought immediate commencement of text-based negotiations on public stockholding, with their joint submission serving as the basis for discussion, to help address severe food security issues.
Indirectly referring to India invoking the Bali peace clause to allow its MSP bill for rice to breach the ceiling limit, the US said that the Bali interim decision had enabled one member to take advantage of unlimited levels of trade-distorting domestic support. The US alleged that ``this member’’ had been able to significantly increase its exports of that one commodity to now account for more than 40 per cent of global exports in that commodity.
“Such allegations are baseless as India’s MSP programme has nothing to do with its rice exports. The variety India exports is premium and is not procured by the government,” a source tracking the matter said.
Japan, the UK and the EU stressed that it was important to maintain transparency in public stock holding programmes and insisted that the Bali interim decision could not serve as a model for formulating a permanent solution on the matter.
India called for a permanent solution based on proposal submitted by developing nations and dismissed arguments for alternative food security solutions beyond public stock holding and special safeguard measures.
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