India at WTO farm talks: ‘Rich nations must end subsidy entitlements’

India has submitted a fresh paper at the on-going WTO negotiations on agriculture demanding that special subsidy entitlements enjoyed by 32 developed countries must be eliminated first before any other country takes on any commitments.

The paper created a sharp division between the developed and developing members with China, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Jamaica strongly supporting it and demanding its inclusion in the negotiating text, according to a Geneva-based trade official.

Rich nations such as the US, the EU, Australia, UK and Switzerland, on the other hand, said picking on one group of members to make contribution to the domestic support reduction was unrealistic, the official added. The special entitlements, known as the Final Bound Total Aggregate Measurement of Support (FBTAMS), allows most developed nations, and a very small number of developing countries, flexibilities to breach prescribed domestic subsidy levels (fixed at 5 per cent of value of produce for rich countries) and also concentrate the support in just a few products.

The African group of countries, too, had earlier submitted a paper on eliminating FBTAMS . It complained that the Chair of the group on agriculture had not included the proposal in her draft text.

‘Close deadline’

With just over two months to go for the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO (MC12) scheduled in Geneva, the Chair of the agriculture committee had earlier called for an immediate switch to a text-based discussion with a view to seeking landing zones and agreed wording for the draft negotiation text.

Text-based discussions take place around a draft text which is negotiated threadbare by members till a common minimum is agreed to by all which would be the final agreement

“India provided figures and numbers to support the argument that FBTAMS allows economies like the US and the EU to overly subsidise sensitive products, such as cotton and dairy, by offering at least five flexibilities to entitled members helping them gain advantage over other countries in global trade,” the official said.

The developing nations backing India appreciated the evidence provided by it and the proposed steps to remove the trade-distorting subsidies. “China said that this could be the first step of the overall reform on domestic support. Other elements of the pillar could be address after this was resolved,” the official added.

‘First priority’

The G-33 Group (a group of developing and least-developed members) and the ACP group (members from African, Caribbean and Pacific regions), too, stressed that eliminating FBTAMS is their first priority in domestic support negotiations.

Some members questioned the accuracy of the data shared by India and said it only focussed on the entitled support and not the actual subsidies. The EU argued that India itself benefitted from additional flexibility beyond de minimis entitlement through its public stock holding programmes.

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