Commerce Minister apprises Modi on WTO issues

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi about developments at the ongoing WTO trade talks at Geneva which had hit a road block following India's tough stand over the food stockpiling issue.
The meeting came against the backdrop of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo suggesting three alternatives to end the impasse.
Sitharaman and senior officials of her ministry met the Prime Minister and "apprised" him about the WTO related issues, sources said.
India had made it clear that it would not ratify the TFA until a permanent solution was found on the food security issue.

Recently, Azevedo had suggested three scenarios to resolve the impasse over trade facilitation agreement and food security issues.
He said that WTO still not have a solution to the impasse and had asked members to continue discussing three potential scenarios of ways forward.

"Scenario 1 is that we find a solution for the impasse quickly. Scenario 2 is that we continue our search for a solution to the current impasse," he had suggested.
Under the third scenario, "in the absence of a solution to the impasse", some members have indicated an openness to look for alternative ways to make progress, he said.

He said that there were two alternatives for the third scenario.
"Scenario 3A is that members seek implementation of the TFA as a plurilateral agreement outside the WTO. If this happens then I am afraid that the other Bali decisions and the post-Bali agenda will not have a bright future. But, overall, I have not heard much sympathy for this approach during my consultations," he added.
However he has added that the full implementation of the Bali package, as it was agreed in Bali in December last year, remains the best option.
After the inconclusive meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organisation on October 21, negotiations were going on among member countries to resolve the issues.

New Delhi had asked WTO to amend the norms for calculating agriculture subsidies so that the country could continue to procure foodgrains from farmers at minimum support price and sell them to poor at cheaper rates without violating the norms.
The current WTO norms limit the value of food subsidies at 10 per cent of the total value of foodgrain production. However, the quantum of subsidy is computed after taking into consideration prices that prevailed two decades ago.