India is set to retain food security right and the protection of poor farmers and fisherfolk as top priorities at the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) highest decision-making body in Buenos Aires. The agenda for the multilateral trade negotiations would also include discussions on ways to advance e-commerce, investment facilitation and measures to help small firms participate effectively in the global marketplace.
The WTO Ministerial Conference, to be held in South America for the first time, will see Argentina hosting the biennial event from December 10-13 in its capital, Buenos Aires. The city’s Spanish name translates as ‘fair winds’ — a meaning fitting well in this context, considering that WTO rules are meant to “establish what is fair” in global trade and “discourage ‘unfair’ practices.”
TFS proposal
In addition to prioritising farm issues, India is keen to push forward its proposal on a Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS) Agreement. The TFS proposal aims to ensure relaxation of norms for movement of skilled workers and professionals across borders for short-term work. In its comments to the WTO on December 5, India proposed “a well-structured post-Buenos Aires meeting work programme on services” incorporating the TFS elements.
Given the complexity of issues being discussed at the current round of negotiations, which had begun in 2001 in Doha to improve the trading prospects of developing nations, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said in a recent statement that “prospects for progress on specific issues in Buenos Aires are unclear. Members remain divided on many issues.” Currently, the WTO has 164 member-countries.
Public stockholding
For India, a “permanent solution” to the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes is key. India is among the many countries which feel that the current WTO norms on public stockholding are very restrictive and prevent governments from meeting their people’s food security needs.
According to a WTO note, “Members have agreed on the need to have an outcome on the public stockholding issue and have broadly converged on the elements that should form part of a permanent solution, including safeguards and transparency requirements. But their views differ on a number of elements such as product coverage, country coverage, information sharing, and preventing excess stocks from seeping into global markets.”
Another outstanding agricultural issue India wants to see resolved is a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries. The SSM would permit developing nations like India to temporarily raise tariffs to counter import surges or price declines of farm items, and thereby protect their farmers. While India is learnt to be backing the Philippines’ proposal for adoption of a price-based SSM, a WTO note said, “In contrast, a number of members made it clear that such an outcome was unrealistic in the absence of a broader outcome in market access. A few members believe that the only feasible outcome on SSM at Buenos Aires would be a decision on the continuation of the SSM negotiations post Buenos Aires.”
On e-commerce, a WTO note said the focus is on four areas: the future of the Work Programme (covering issues related to trade arising from global e-commerce), the moratorium (practice of agreeing at every Ministerial Conference to not impose customs duties on electronic transmissions, until the next Ministerial Conference), possible negotiations on e-commerce, and the setting up of a working group or other institutional structure. On the negotiations to limit harmful fisheries subsidies, India is batting for continuation of subsidies to small and subsistence fisherfolk.
