Brazil and EU urge India for timely notifications on sugar subsidies at WTO

Sub: IR

Sec: Int org

Context:

A group of WTO member countries, including Brazil, Canada and the European Union, have urged India to submit timely notifications on sugar subsidies in the World Trade Organisation.

More on news:

The issue came up for discussion during the meeting of the WTO’s agriculture committee on May 23-24 in Geneva.
Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay, New Zealand, the EU, and Guatemala have urged India to submit timely notifications on the subsidies.
According to study, over the four-year period from 2018-19 to 2021-22, India has provided market price support on sugarcane in excess of the limits set out in the Agreement on Agriculture (10 percent of the total value of sugarcane production) by a margin of 92-101 per cent.

India’s Stand:

India has stated that the Indian central and state governments neither paid for nor procured sugarcane from farmers, as all purchases were made by private sugar mills.
In its appeal, India has stated that the WTO’s dispute panel ruling has made certain erroneous findings about domestic schemes to support sugarcane producers and exports and the findings of the panel are completely unacceptable to it.
Hence, this information was not included in its notifications of domestic support.
In 2022, India appealed against a ruling of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) trade dispute settlement panel which ruled that the country’s domestic support measures for sugar and sugarcane are inconsistent with global trade norms.
The appeal was filed by India in the WTO’s Appellate Body, which is the final authority on such trade disputes and is not functioning.
Brazil, Australia, and Guatemala had filed the cases against India on these support measures.

About WTO:

The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade.
Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in cooperation with the United Nations System.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a multilateral organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
It came into existence on January 1, 1995, as a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The organization functions as a central body that facilitates global trade.