The Agreement on Agriculture at the WTO is riddled with deep imbalances, which favour the developed countries and have tilted the rules against many developing countries, said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
The Minister said that historical asymmetries and imbalances must be corrected to ensure a rule-based, fair and equitable order.
Mr. Goyal said this while addressing the G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting. Out of a total of 47 G-33 members, representatives from 21 countries, including India, took the floor to make the brief intervention.
Mr. Goyal said G-33 must strive for positive outcomes on a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security purposes, which was of utmost importance, finalisation of a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) quickly, and a balanced outcome on domestic support.
The Minister urged the members to work collectively to retain the cohesion of the G-33 coalition and strengthen it further by reaching out to other like-minded developing groups to secure their support for a fair, balanced and development-centric outcome on agriculture at the 12th conference in Geneva.
The meeting concluded with the adoption of the G-33 joint ministerial statement reaffirming commitment for expeditious resolution of the WTO’s mandated issues in agriculture.
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