India says only some concerns addressed at WTO meet in Nairobi

Sitharaman says 'absolutely disappointed declaration does not mention the Doha round'

Notwithstanding the delay and late adoption of the Nairobi Ministerial Declaration late on Saturday, India and other developing countries feel only a few of their concerns have been addressed at the end of five days of heady deliberations at the 10th World Trade Organization ministerial conference.

A unanimous reaffirmation of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) has not occurred, much to the chagrin of commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said she was "absolutely disappointed that the ministerial declaration does not mention the Doha round. Doha has been very dear to us."

While Doha has been grabbing headlines, the more contentious issues of public stockholding of food crops and special safeguard mechanism (SSM) in agriculture have also not seen major progress.

The DDA, adopted way back in 2001 at the fourth ministerial conference, had always struggled to find a common ground among members after a schism developed between the rich nations and their poorer brethren.

Not having seen major progress in the last 14 years, rich nations want new issues to replace DDA. Developing nations, especially least developed countries (LDCs), oppose this, demanding trade concessions in the form of reduced tariff and market access.

The United States' vehement opposition to any mention of DDA in the ministerial declaration had led to the conference being extended by a day. The draft of the final ministerial declaration, which had been revised thrice, was released on Saturday evening: "We recognize that many members reaffirm the DDA, and the declarations and decisions adopted at Doha and at the ministerial conferences held since then, and reaffirm their full commitment to conclude the DDA on that basis". However, it also mentioned, "Other members do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe new approaches are necessary to achieve meaningful outcomes in multilateral negotiations."

Apart from pointing to fragmented opinion at the WTO, the ministerial declaration effectively barricades Doha because the WTO procedures mandate that any new resolution must garner the unanimous support of all member countries before being adopted.

As to a permanent solution on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes, which has been repeatedly demanded by India, negotiations will continue in the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session ("CoA SS"), which will be distinct from the ongoing agriculture negotiations under the DDA.

A senior commerce ministry official said, "There is no reason to expect sudden changes in WTO policy, now that the fight has again been transferred back to Geneva."

However, WTO has recognised developing members' rights to have recourse to SSM as envisaged under the Hong Kong ministerial declaration. This will again be subject to further negotiations, which are likely to be fruitless in the near future.

The SSM, a long-standing demand of developing nations, allows countries to temporarily raise tariffs to deal with surging imports and subsequent price falls.

Commerce secretary Rita Teaotia had earlier said it was ironical that developed countries were deriving the same benefits from similar provisions of special (agricultural) safeguards (SSGs), while refusing developing countries' SSM.

According to Sitharaman, SSM was not even part of the original agenda at Nairobi and only after India's intervention a work plan supporting it was created. However, it will act as a poor substitute to the final SSM which had attracted groundswell of support from the G-33, BRICS, G77 and the Africa bloc.

The conference, having been held in Nairobi, was significant for least developed countries (LDC) and the Africa bloc, which are expected to benefit from the declaration on cotton which mandates that developed members shall grant duty-free and quota-free market access for cotton produced and exported by LDCs from January 1 of 2016. However, this declaration leaves out developing countries like India and South Africa.

One thing that will affect all these countries is the declaration on export competition. Touted by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo as the "most significant outcome on agriculture" in the organisation's 20-year history, it will see all countries reducing export subsidies paid to farmers. While developed members will start cutting subsidies immediately, developing countries like including India, which are expected to be hit harder, shall have to start by the end of 2018.

WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT DIDN'T

• Issues of public stockholding of food crops and special safeguard mechanism in agriculture have not seen major progress
   
• Rich nations want new issues to replace Doha Development Agenda
   
• The ministerial declaration effectively barricades Doha because the WTO procedures mandate that any new resolution must garner the unanimous support of all member countries
   
• WTO has recognised developing members' rights to have recourse to special safeguard mechanism as envisaged under the Hong Kong ministerial
   
• Touted as the "most significant outcome on agriculture" in the WTO's history, the declaration on export competition will see all countries reducing export subsidies paid to farmers