Tension is likely to run high at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) agriculture committee meeting on Wednesday as the chair looks for a solution to the widening difference between some developed nations led by the US and developing countries including India over the agenda for the ministerial meeting in Nairobi next month.

“The US’ insistence, at a recent small-group meeting, on keeping items of interest to poor farmers such as special safeguard mechanism (SSM) and food procurement subsidies, out of the Nairobi agenda is unacceptable to India. The US is only pushing for an outcome on export competition, which is unfair,” a Commerce Ministry official told BusinessLine. Such a rigid posture would threaten a positive outcome at the Nairobi meet, he added.

The Wednesday meeting is important as it would provide greater clarity on what to expect at Nairobi next month when trade ministers from 152 member countries meet to strike a deal on some of the issues that are part of the Doha round of talks launched in 2001.

The Agriculture Committee (special session) Chairman, New Zealand Ambassador Vangelis Vitalis, held meetings of select countries on public stockholding, SSM and cotton over the last few days, the details of which would be discussed with all members on Wednesday, a Geneva-based official who attended some of these meetings said.

“There have also been new proposals on the export competition outcome, being favoured by the US and other agriculture products exporting countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan and the EU, for the WTO Nairobi ministerial,” he said.

These developed countries, backed by a handful of developing members such as Chile and Brazil, want Nairobi to mainly deliver on export competition – that includes elimination of export subsidies and tightening of disciplines on food aid and state trading enterprises.

The G-33 group of developing countries with defensive interests in agriculture, that has 44 members including India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya, the Philippines, Bolivia and Cuba, on the other hand, has submitted a proposal stating that no substitutes to a credible SSM was acceptable to the group.

The G-33 wants the Nairobi package to have provisions on SSM that would allow developing countries to increase tariffs on farm products when a surge in imports hurt poor farmers.

Permanent solution

India has also been insisting that a ‘permanent solution’ to the problem of treating its food procurement subsidies so that it does not get penalised for breaching existing caps, gets worked out at Nairobi.

The package for least developed countries, that is being viewed as another deliverable for Nairobi, may not amount to much as many developed countries have already said that they were not willing to take binding commitments in the area.

Related Topics