India is open to supplying food grains to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), but won’t support a binding agreement on it at the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) next month, commerce ministry officials said.
This comes amid growing pressure from nearly 80 countries, led by Singapore, that are pushing WTO members to accept a binding pact. Indian officials said a binding pact will restrict India’s ability to provide direct food support to neighbours such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Under a pact all such assistance will be taken over by the WFP.
Instead, India wants the WTO to allow exports of food grains from public stocks as international food aid and for humanitarian purposes, on a government-to-government basis, an official said.
“Due to national food security concerns, India may not agree to exemptions for the WFP which otherwise has multiple options to explore food supplies,” the official added.
Officials said India has been a significant contributor to the WFP over the years while also lending extensive support to its immediate and distant neighbours with food supplies. However, the problems faced by the WFP are related to its funding and not procurement, he added.
Mint has earlier reported that India will seek a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding for food security during the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference starting on 12 June in Geneva.
According to current WTO rules, a member-country’s food subsidy bill should not breach 10% of the value of production based on the base price of 1986-88. India is seeking changes to the formula to calculate the food subsidy limit.
Under the peace clause, WTO members agreed to refrain from challenging any breach of the prescribed ceiling of 10% by a developing nation. In essence, developing countries cannot be taken to arbitration as they are protected under the peace clause. However, the clause is only applicable until a permanent solution is reached.
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