India’s principled stand seeking parallel progress on trade facilitation and food security agreements at the WTO is a right step
While food security is a matter of national sovereignty (Mint Edit, 22 July), let us not confuse it with trade negotiations, as many are indulging in. Secondly, the World Trade Organization (WTO) issue is on production subsidies and not consumption subsidies, so it does not affect our poor consumers. India’s principled stand seeking parallel progress on trade facilitation and food security agreements, including development issues, at the WTO is a right step. Otherwise, one will move fast and the others will lag behind.
The history of trade negotiations shows rich countries push their agenda and indulge in dragging issues of poor countries to tire them out by just talk and talk. In the run up to the WTO ministerial at Bali in December, the three issues were intertwined. At Bali, India ensured that public stockholding of food does not lose its spot in the way forward for the accord. It was adopted as one of the priority items of the long-drawn Doha Round. Trade facilitation (TF) and LDC (least developed country) concerns were the two others.
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