'India won't wait without end for WTO food stocks solution'

Giving notice of India's unwillingness to wait "interminably" for resolving WTO issues concerning public stockholding of food grain, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Wednesday hoped that World Trade Organization members would understand its position and come up with a solution.

"We won't wait interminably for a solution on food stockpiling. We hope that the WTO member countries understand the position India has taken. We would like WTO to address them and I am hopeful," Sitharaman said while addressing the media here on the initiatives her ministry has taken in the first 100 days of the National Democratic Alliance government.

"Negotiations will have to continue. It is not just for India, but in the interest of many countries which have public stock of food grain. These are issues of sovereign right of a country," she added.

The WTO has resumed meetings at Geneva from Sep 1 after a month long vacation.

India has clarified that its decision not to ratify WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in end-July is aimed at ensuring that the country's efforts to ensure food security remain consistent with its international obligations.

India's stand is that without such a permanent solution, public stockholding measures in developing countries will be hampered by the current ceiling on domestic support at 10 percent of the value of production. Such support is considered as a trade-distorting subsidy to farmers under existing WTO rules.

Informing media persons that over September-October there will be more meetings of WTO's Agricultural Committee, Sitharaman said India has proposed several options, including one supported by the G-33 nations, and hoped the WTO members would discuss these and come to a conclusion.

"We had given a lot of alternatives. Probably there wasn't enough time for the WTO to sit over these proposals and come back with the response then (end-July). But I would certainly hope that those proposals and even the new ones that India is offering, all will be taken on board and WTO will engage with us," the minister said.

Sitharaman denied the country is isolated on the issue.

"Today the environment is far more in favour of India. We are also talking to a number of members to explain our position," she said.

"The thought must be removed from the mind that people are irate, people think we are isolated. On the contrary, we now have more people understanding India's position. I don't think anyone is irate anymore even if they were earlier," she added.

India has proposed WTO to amend the norms for calculating agriculture subsidies so that the country could continue to procure food grain from farmers at minimum support price and sell them to poor at cheaper rates without violating the norms.