Pulses Import Curbs

Subject – Agriculture

Context – US asks India to set a deadline for ending pulses import curbs

Concept –

The US has demanded that India should immediately provide a date for permanent termination of the quantitative restrictions on imports of pulses, especially yellow peas. It has also sought all information on public stockholding that New Delhi is yet to submit to the WTO.
Russia, Canada, the EU, Australia and Ukraine, too, questioned India on the quantitative restrictions on pulses and its public stockpiling, at a recent meeting of the Committee on Agriculture in Geneva.
The countries had earlier asked India to explain how import restrictions were consistent with WTO rules as the multilateral body did not allow quantitative restrictions on exports and imports except under exceptional circumstances.
India’s quantitative restrictions on import of pulses, introduced in 2017 and 2018, were to expire on March 31, 2020, but India then indicated these “temporary” measures, would be extended for 2021-22, as per a representation made by exporting nations at the WTO earlier this year
New Delhi has been pushing for a permanent solution to the problem of public stockholding at the WTO as under the present rules its expenditure on its MSP programmes falls under the category of trade distorting subsidy to be capped at 10 per cent of total value of production. India wants this cap to go to protect the livelihood of its farmers and the poor.