India, at the forthcoming Nairobi meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), will put “all its energies” on pushing through a plan meant to protect the interests and livelihood of poor and vulnerable farmers, government officials who didn’t want to be identified told The Hindu.
Roberto Azevedo, WTO Director General, recently said that the negotiations to firm up rules to liberalise global trade are currently “stuck” due to member countries finding it “difficult to reconcile their views” on a host of issues.
The Indian position echoed the one recently proposed by the G-33 on an effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). The G33 is a coalition of 48 nations including India, Indonesia and China, which took up the issue of developing countries getting considerable flexibility in limiting market opening of agriculture sector.
The SSM is a trade remedy that would allow developing countries to temporarily hike import duties on farm products to counter sudden import surges and price falls, thereby, protecting the interests of poor farmers. The same issue had led to the breakdown of a WTO ministerial meeting in July 2008.
It has been generally agreed that the developing countries could have an SSM, but developed countries including the US have opposed a proposal to enable developing countries to raise tariffs (using SSM) over and above the duty commitments made by them (developing countries) in the farm sector during the earlier Uruguay Round of WTO global trade pact negotiations. The Uruguay Round took place before the current Doha Round talks that began in 2001. The new SSM proposal was to include provisions to empower developing countries to impose additional duties (temporarily) on agriculture products when their imports breach specified ceilings on price or volume
India wants this SSM proposal to be taken up on a “high priority-basis” during the WTO ministerial meeting at Nairobi (Kenya) slated to start on December 15, official sources said “There will not be any compromise on this (SSM) issue as it involves protection of poor farmers, which is of course a politically sensitive matter. It has to be given priority at the Kenya meet,” an official said.
However, the developed world, including the US, European Union, Australia, along with leading agriculture producer and exporter Brazil, has expressed their disagreement with the proposal. The negotiations are over the extent to which different categories of (developing) countries will be allowed to hike duties (using the SSM) beyond their 'bound tariff' -- or the duty ceiling as per their WTO commitments.
Official sources said the developing countries including India had, during recent discussions at the WTO, wanted an “effective” SSM for “addressing volatilities and instabilities causing import surges and price depressions.” The developing nations added that if these import surges and price depressions were “not immediately and effectively addressed as they occur, (they would) undermine poverty reduction efforts, livelihood and food security, and rural development in WTO Members.”
The volatility in global prices of agricultural items, the developing countries claim, is caused by many factors, including huge subsidies given to the farm sector in developed countries. Developing countries members, including India, said that therefore, an effective SSM was “very important” for them. The developed countries instead want discussions on SSM to be linked to the issue of greater market access in farm products, the sources said. Another item that India wants to be taken up on priority at the Nairobi meeting is that of arriving at a permanent solution to the issue of public food stockholding in developing countries for the purpose of food security.
