NEW DELHI: India scored a major victory on Thursday, resolving with the United States its long-standing differences over food stockpiling issue at the WTO, paving the way for the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) to ease customs norms.
The two nations agreed that the Peace Clause, crucial for uninterrupted implementation of India’s food security programme, would continue indefinitely till a permanent solution is found by the WTO. India wants to retain the Peace Clause that protects its huge state food purchases until the WTO can strike a definitive deal on stockpiling. As originally envisaged in Bali, the clause, which gives legal security to member countries from being challenged under other WTO agreements, would expire in 2017.
“India and the US have successfully resolved their differences relating to the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes in the WTO in a manner that addresses our concerns. This will end the impasse at the WTO and also open the way for implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA),” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here. She attributed the breakthrough to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in September.
The WTO’s highest decision-making body, the General Council, will review the proposal of the two countries in the second week of December. Sitharaman hoped the Council would clear the way for India to sign a protocol for implementation of the TFA. India had asked WTO to amend the norms for calculating agri-subsidies so that the country could continue to procure foodgrains from farmers at minimum support price and sell them to the poor at cheaper rates without violating the WTO norms of limiting the subsidies to 10 per cent of the production.
Media reports quoted US Trade Representative Michael Froman as saying that the Bali package, which was held up in July after India raised concerns over the food security issue, will now move forward. “We have overcome that delay and now have agreement with India to move forward with full implementation (of the Bali package).”