India has come under fire at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for “avoiding questions’’ raised by members on its minimum support price (MSP) programmes for food grain, particularly for rice where its subsidies have breached prescribed limits, with some alleging that it did not give sufficient replies to concerns raised by them during consultations.

Members such as the US, Australia, Canada, the EU, and Thailand, at a WTO agriculture committee meeting on Monday, said India must reply to questions asked on its public stockholding (PSH) programmes at the committee, sources said.

“India, however, stuck to its guns and insisted that it provided the best possible information and clarifications at the consultations held with interested members based on available information. It also said that some of the questions raised were already addressed in earlier responses,” the source said.

Peace clause

India’s MSP programmes are under scrutiny at the WTO as it is the first country to invoke the Bali ‘peace clause’ to justify exceeding its 10 per cent ceiling (of the total value of rice production) for rice support in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

While the ‘peace clause’ allows developing countries to breach the 10 per cent ceiling without invoking legal action by members, it is subject to onerous notification requirements and numerous conditions such as not distorting global trade and not affecting food security of other members.

WTO members, including the US, have been accusing India of habitually not including the full required information in its notifications. Some members had pointed out earlier that while it was mandatory to report all public stockholding programmes under the ‘peace clause’, India had not been doing so and the country also did not have an adequate monitoring mechanism to ensure no stocks were exported.

‘No obligation’

New Delhi had said that it provided data on the value of production (VoP) for several crops and it did not have any obligation to notify any public stockholding programmes other than for the crop where subsidy limits were breached.

During the agriculture committee meeting, the US, Brazil, Canada, Ukraine, Thailand, the EU, and Australia notified the committee of all questions that they had raised in their individual consultations with India and said that the country should make replies to the committee and not avoid the questions.

India, however, said that it was not under any obligation to give written replies as consultations are typically oral exchanges and it had provided information and clarifications to the best of its ability, the source said. “India also said it could provide further clarifications on the remaining concerns of members by submitting a corrigendum to its earlier Bali annex notifications,” the source added.

The countries that raised concerns said they were disappointed with India’s answer and some said that they were waiting for New Delhi to confirm the second round of consultation with members.

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