Reiterating its tough stance over food-grain stockpile issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that agreement on food security and trade facilitation will have to go hand-in-hand. Notably, these comments came a little ahead of PM’s meet with US President Barack Obama.
It was India’s tough stand on this issue, which had led to collapse of the WTO Geneva talks on July 31 as the country stood pat too seek a permanent solution for food-grain stockpile issue, which the government felt was essential for unhindered implementation of the country's food security programme. The country decided not to ratify WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which is dear to the developed world, without any concrete movement to its public food stock-holding issue for food security purposes.
The problem occurred when the country asked the WTO to modify the norms for calculating agri-subsidies in order to procure food-grains from farmers at minimum support price and sell that to poor at cheaper rates without violating norms that attracted penalty in the WTO. The current WTO norms limit the value of food subsidies at 10% of the total value of food-grain production. However, the support is calculated at the prices that are over two decades old. Nevertheless, reports suggest that the implementation of food security programme would breach 10% cap and may lead to imposition of hefty penalties if a member country drags India to the WTO
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