India won’t sacrifice its food security scheme, Sharma tells G-33

Union minister of commerce and industry Anand Sharma has strongly defended India's food security scheme at the G-33 meeting at Bali, ahead of the 9th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In a statement, strongly underlining India's concerns over WTO's agriculture agenda, he said that the food security scheme must be protected from all challenges in the WTO as it is not only a sensitive issue for India but also a critical social imperative. 

Stating that there is a national consensus and complete political unanimity on this matter in India, Sharma said,  ''It is, therefore, difficult for us to accept an interim solution as it has been currently designed. As a responsible nation, we are committed to a constructive engagement for finding a lasting solution. But till such time that we reach there, an interim solution, which protects us from all forms of challenge must remain intact.''

State procurement and public stockholding of foodgrains are invaluable instrumentalities used by developing countries to secure interests of the poor and the vulnerable, Sharma said.

He also urged WTO to update the archaic rules under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), so as to rectify its inherent flaws and help developing countries in carrying out such legitimate operations without defaulting on their commitments.

The G-33 proposal on food security aims to address the problems faced by developing countries due to outdated WTO rules, which base agriculture subsidy calculation on external reference prices of 1986-88, even as global food prices have increased manifold during this period.

"It is surely reasonable," the minister said, "that we should not be asked to peg farm support calculations on prices which were prevailing thirty years ago!"

Stating that reforms in agriculture trade rules envisaged in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) would have made a major contribution towards improving the lot of millions of poor farmers in the developing world, he noted that unfortunately, a consensus on agriculture had eluded members so far.

Coming down heavily on developed countries, the minister observed that while developing countries had shown a spirit of cooperation and pragmatism in the negotiations in Geneva over the last several months, the same spirit had been sadly missing in the positions of some of the members from the developed world.

''We cannot continue to have rhetoric of development agenda without even a reasonable attempt to address the issues, which are of primary concern to developing economies. For decades, handful of farm lobbies of some countries have shaped the discourse and determined the destiny of millions of subsistence farmers of the developing countries. The massive subsidisation of the farm sector in the developed countries is not even a subject matter of discussion, leave aside serious negotiations,'' he said.

Stressing the need for a fair balance in the Bali outcome, Sharma said, ''We can no longer allow the interests of our farmers to be compromised at the altar of mercantilist ambitions of the rich. The Bali ministerial meeting is an opportunity for the developing countries to stay united in resolve to demonstrate the centrality of agriculture in trade talks''.

The G-33 meeting, chaired by the minister of trade of Indonesia, Gita Wirjawan, was attended by all its 47 member countries, Indonesia, Antigua and Barboda, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Bolivia, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Peru, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Sharma, who is leading a 30-member delegation for the 9th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization to be held in Bali from 3-6 December 2013, has indicated that India will be firm on the core agenda of food security, while being persuasive and constructive.