WTO Farm Talks

Subject – Economy

Context – India resists rich nations’ attempt to ‘divide’ developing nations, LDCs

Concept –

India is resisting attempts by developed nations to “draw a wedge” between developing countries and LDCs in the ongoing negotiations for subsidising public stock holding programmes at the WTO, under the garb of offering an early resolution, and has asked poorer nations not to fall into the trap.
The G33 group of developing nations, which includes India, has been seeking a permanent solution for rules on public stock holding that will allow developing nations and LDCs to give subsidies for such programmes, including minimum support prices for farm produce, without any limitations, as it is essential for supporting the countries’ poor and for ensuring food security.
Under the Agreement on Agriculture, developing countries and LDCs have to limit subsidies for public stock holding to 10 per cent of production value, beyond which they could be penalised.
At the Bali Ministerial Conference in 2013, India managed to get a `peace clause’ as part of an interim solution which allows immunity against action on breach of the ceiling limit, but it is only limited to traditional staples and excludes new programmes.
The G33, in its submission in September 2021, demanded that the permanent solution should include all crops and all new programmes with no upper limit on total procurement (the Chair’s text proposes a tentative upper limit of 15 per cent). It also wants less onerous notification obligations.