Bali:?In what is seen as a major development, WTO members cleared the landmark global trade deal that addresses the issues raised by India with regard to food security plan. The deal is the first global trade reform ever since the creation of the World Trade Organisation.
The WTO director-general, Roberto Azevedo, has drafted a text that he will submit to the full membership, signalling that he believes he has found terms that are acceptable to all members, including India which had raised vocal objections over agriculture.
India’s trade minister Anand Sharma said on Friday he would endorse a draft trade reform at the WTO, removing a major obstacle to a deal.
“It is a victory for the WTO and for the global community to have arrived at a mature decison,” he said. “We are more than happy. It is a great day. It is a historic day.”
India’s concerns on food security are expected to be addressed in the final text of the WTO, he said.
Sharma, however, did not make any commitment before leaving for the final round of negotiations, saying he had not seen the final draft. “We stand by our point on the food security issue,” he told reporters. India’s demand for immunity from penalties for its food security programme, sources said, had been addressed in the latest draft on Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).
As per the AoA draft text, members have agreed to put in place an interim mechanism till a final solution is found with regard to public stock holding for food security purposes.
Members, it added, “shall refrain from challenging though the WTO dispute settlement mechanism ...of the agreement on agriculture in relation to support provided for traditional staple food crops in pursuance of public stock holding programme for food security purposes...”
Azevedo late night had called a meeting to end the impasse and clinch a deal on the 12-year-old Doha round.
Azevedo also held a 90-minute separate meeting with Sharma to end the stand-off following the rigid stand taken by India that there could be no compromise on its food security programme.
Regarded as a major development on the farm sector since 1995, India’s tough stance yielded results and the developed world has come around to its demand for flexibility in dealing with food security issues.
Developed countries such as the US and the EU are asking India to accept a peace clause, which offers four years of immunity from penalties imposed from breaching farm subsidy cap of 10 per cent under the agreement.
