Cabinet approves India's stand at WTO’s Nairobi meet
The Cabinet has approved India’s stand at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference held in Nairobi in December, which included the country’s commitment towards food security and agricultural exports. The power-packed conference, which saw a conflict between developing and developed countries over issues like farm subsidy and implementation of Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) to curb imports, concluded with members agreeing to continue discussion on a common negotiation package. The Nairobi Ministerial Package covers decisions of developing countries on agricultural subsidy, implementation of SSM, public stockholding for food security purposes and commitment to abolish subsidies on farm exports among others. “Decisions were also made regarding preferential treatment to LDCs (Least Developed Countries) in the area of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs may benefit from trade preferences,” a government statement said on Wednesday. The Nairobi conference, which would also determine the future of the Doha Round of trade negotiations, was termed important for greater integration of developing countries in the global trading system. However, a few developed countries strongly opposed to the continuation of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). India said that the DDA must continue and no new issues should be introduced into the WTO agenda until the DDA has been completed. “India negotiated and secured a re-affirmative ministerial decision on public stockholding for food security purposes honouring both the Bali Ministerial and General Council Decisions. The decision commits members to engage constructively in finding a permanent solution to this issue,” the statement said. India also negotiated the developing countries’ rights to have recourse to implement the special safeguard mechanism against surging imports as envisaged in the Doha mandate. India supported outcomes on issues of interest to LDCs including rules of origin for LDCs and preferential treatment for LDC services providers. The WTO negotiations in Nairobi also dealt with the rules on fisheries subsidies. However, there was no outcome in this area.
January 21, 2016 | 04:01pm IST
to success.