UN Spl Rapporteur backs India on food security issue at WTO

Supporting India and other nations' demand for a permanent solution on food security at the WTO, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Hilal Elver today said public stockholding programme is the first line of defense against price shocks in the developing world.
"Public stockholding programs constitute the first line of defense for developing countries against price shocks, production volatility, and food insecurity," Elver, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said.
In a statement issued from Geneva, she stressed the need to find a permanent solution to the issue, saying it was vital for food security needs of developing countries.

Trade rules must be shaped around the food security policies that developing nations need, rather than policies having to tiptoe around WTO rules, she said.
"Reforms to the WTO's agriculture rules are urgently needed if progress toward the right to adequate food is to be realised," Elver said.
Public stock holding of foodgrains programme is being used by a large number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"Non-resolution of the permanent solution to the public stockholding programme would be in bad faith, given the commitment that all countries made to resolve this in Bali and the meetings thereafter," she said.

The UN Special Rapporteur also highlighted that such programmes are "entirely justified and desperately needed" if governments are to meet their obligations to ensure food security for everyone.
Expressing grave concern over calls by some negotiators to cease negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda, Elver said such moves are "profoundly troubling".
"A handful of developed countries should not be allowed to block the Doha Round, which is not just a set of issues but a set of principles and a negotiating framework that emerged after more than a decade of stalled negotiations," she said.