Agriculture

KEY POINTS

·         According to the “Peace clause” negotiated by India at the Bali meet in 2013, no action will be taken against India, or other developing countries, in case the subsidies on their food procurement programmes breach the ceiling of 10 per cent of value of food production laid down by the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).

·         Although the Bali declaration stated that the peace clause was an interim arrangement, and a permanent solution should be negotiated by 2017, India pushed the WTO in to making the peace clause perpetual till a satisfactory permanent solution was in place.

·         India is not totally against the permanent solution. Instead, it is against the clauses that get mentioned in the permanent solution negotiated to replace peace clause.

Issues in permanent solution negotiated

·         The permanent solution negotiated imposes an additional compliance burden.

·         Many developed country members are trying to make the permanent solution on subsidies for public stock holding so onerous that it would be difficult for developing countries to meet the conditions.

·         For instance, India is being asked to commit that it would not export from public stocks, saying such exports would be trade-distorting which was not explicitly stated in the peace clause.

·         The EU is also trying to link a permanent solution to India and China to taking on commitments to reduce domestic support and also give up some of the special and differential treatment they have now access to.

India’s stand

·         Food security and protection of low-income and resource-poor farmers are top priority items for India.

·         As the peace clause can be used in perpetuity, India is under no pressure to give it up in favour of a permanent solution that is less desirable.

·         India is also trying to get some of the existing conditions under the peace clause removed.

·         One such condition is removing the transparency clause, which mandates that users of the peace clause should declare in advance that their subsidy limits would be breached.

·         This enables the foreign countries to intervene and questions domestic policies.

·         India must aggressively push for getting a better permanent solution than the peace clause or at least an equivalent of peace clause to protect its poor citizens. 

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