War against Covid-19 has to embrace all the three critical dimensions: testing, tracking, and treatment At the recent 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) headquarters in Geneva (June 12-17), it was advantage developed countries – the US, the European Union, the UK, Australia etc., — all the way. The Indian delegation led by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal occupied the centre-stage steering negotiations in all key areas but the outcome was not in their favour. First, India went to MC12 demanding a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Waiver for all Covid-related therapeutics and diagnostics, besides vaccines. Against this, the MC-12 granted a patent waiver (albeit ‘temporary’ and ‘limited’) only for Covid-19 vaccines which will allow India to authorise...
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Category: Agricultural Subsidies in developed countries
WTO MC-12: Deft handling by India
While it was advantage developed countries all the way, India was able to avoid more harm to its interests At the World Trade Organization (WTO), even as all decisions are taken by consensus and every member country has equal voice, when it comes to actual confabulations, there are glaring inequalities. The developed countries—the US, the European Union, the UK, Australia, etc.—exercise disproportionately greater influence. They set the agenda of meetings, and get away with what they want even as developing countries are made to concur. The outcome of the just concluded 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) at the WTO headquarters in Geneva (June 12-17) is broadly in sync with this trend seen in the past. For India, the most crucial area...
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India’s ambitious wheat export plan could come under WTO lens
Amidst the Ukraine crisis, supplies of wheat from Russia and Ukraine have been disrupted, leading to a steep increase in its international price. In this backdrop, sitting on plenty of wheat stock, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has exhorted that India can help meet the global requirements, provided the World Trade Organisation (WTO) allows it. The caveat merits serious consideration. India runs a mammoth programme of public stockholding (PSH) for food security purposes. Under it, agencies of the government like the Food Corporation of India (FCI) buy agri-produce such as wheat, rice/paddy, coarse cereals, from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP) and distribute at a heavily subsidised price of Rs 1/2/3 per kg through a network of fair price shops...
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Hobson’s choice on farm subsidies
The Government may consider DBT to farmers; India can give it without any cap and yet remain compliant with its commitment under the WTO At the Trade Policy Review (TPR) meeting held at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in January, India insisted that a permanent solution for public stockholding to serve the food security objective special safeguard measures (SSMs) to prevent import surges and elimination of unfair farm subsidy entitlements of some members should be taken up on a priority basis for any farm deal that may be worked out at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduled to be held from November 29. For about two decades, India has been taking up at the WTO these core agriculture issues that are...
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Protecting agri-subsidies at WTO – ‘Hobson’s choice’
At the Trade Policy Review (TPR) meeting held at WTO (World Trade Organisation) in Geneva (January, 2021), the Indian delegation led by the commerce secretary, A Wadhawan insisted that (i) permanent solution for public stockholding to serve the food security objective; (ii) special safeguard measures (SSMs) to prevent import surges and (iii) elimination of unfair farm subsidy entitlements of some members should be taken up first on priority for any farm deal that may be worked out at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC 12) scheduled to be held from November 29, 2021. Ever since the launch of Doha Development Round (DDR) (2001) (as the title suggests, this was meant primarily to address the issues of concern to the developing...
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An unreliable shield
Since the subsidy given to rice farmers has exceeded 10 per cent, India has violated its WTO commitment and invoked the ‘peace clause.’ But how much immunity will this give to it? In a notification submitted to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) — the multilateral body which binds member countries to a common set of rules with regard to trade in goods and services with “fairness” and “non-discrimination” as its underlying principles — India has informed that the value of its rice production during 2018-19 marketing year was $43.67 billion and for that, it provided subsidies worth $5 billion. This works out to 11.4 per cent of the value of rice production. Under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the WTO, a...
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Peace Clause – unreliable shield against subsidy breach
In a notification submitted to the World Trade Organization [WTO] – the multilateral body which binds member countries to a common set of rules with regard to trade in goods and services with ‘fairness’ and ‘non-discrimination’ as its underlying principles – India has informed that the value of its rice production during 2018-19 marketing year was US$ 43.67 billion and for that it provided subsidies worth US$ 5 billion. This works out to 11.4% of the value of rice production. Under the Agreement on Agriculture [AoA] of the WTO, a developing country cannot give aggregate measurement support [AMS] – an acronym for subsidies in WTO parlance – in excess of 10% of the value of its agricultural production. The AMS...
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No big deal
Staying clear of the optics and bonhomie on display all through the US President’s recent visit to India , one gets a sense that the road to even a limited trade deal is thorny Prior to the maiden visit of US President Donald Trump to India, there was a sense of dejection about the possibility of the US and India signing even a limited trade deal, leave aside a major one. This is to be seen in the backdrop of the absence of United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer from the delegation. Earlier, too, Lighthizer had cancelled a visit to New Delhi when he was scheduled to wrap up discussions on a trade agreement. However, the mood was buoyant at the...
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Trade deal – forget big, even mini unlikely
Prior to the maiden visit of President, Donald Trump to India [February 24 – 25, 2020], there was a sense of dejection about the possibility of US and India signing even a limited trade deal not to talk of a ‘big deal’. This is to be seen in the backdrop of the United States Trade Representative [USTR], Robert Lighthizer [the point man who has the onerous responsibility of formulating US trade policy and negotiating trade pacts with countries world-wide] not being part of the delegation. Earlier, Lighthizer had cancelled a visit to New Delhi when he was scheduled to wrap up discussion on a trade deal. However, on conclusion of the visit, the mood is buoyant. This was reflected in...
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Shed the protectionist mindset
Keeping in mind the criticality of being an integral part of the global supply chain to achieve a $5 trillion economy, India needs to reconsider its decision on RCEP The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a conglomeration of 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) viz. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, The Philippines, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia plus six others viz. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China and India. If it really sees the light of day with all 16 members intact, the group will cover 3.6 billion people or almost 50 per cent of the world’s population and account for nearly 40 per cent of the global GDP (Gross Domestic Product). India is...
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