Key Points
India, along with at least 20 other countries, will deliberate the way forward on trade distorting subsidies that have prevented substantive progress in the multilateral agriculture negotiations, at a key mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this week...
The meeting, to be held Tuesday, follows India's criticism of the Cairns Group for proposing to halve the overall agriculture domestic support entitlements by the end of 2034 and "ambushing" public stockholding talks.. Around 80 WTO members opposed this proposal by the Cairns Group, which has 19 members including Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Canada..
Last month, the European Union had shown willingness to negotiate the public stockholding issue with India..
The mini-ministerial meeting assumes significance as India and 80-odd developing and least developed countries want an outcome on public stockholding to be at the core of any potential agriculture package at the 13th ministerial conference (MC13) of the WTO next year...
Developing countries' food subsidies are protected by an interim peace clause, which shields food procurement programmes against action from WTO members in case the subsidy ceilings - 10% of value of food production in the case of India and other developing countries - are breached...
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