WTO Talks Extend to Day 5: India Pushes for Farmer Interests

Abu Dhabi, Feb 29 (PTI) Hectic parleys are on to bridge differences between developed and emerging economies on issues such as agriculture, fisheries subsidies, and e-commerce moratorium and the WTO ministerial meeting is likely to be extended by one day, an official said on Thursday.

The official said talks are going on among the member nations on all the issues and India is clearly stating that it will not compromise the interests of farmers and fishermen.

India has stated that there are livelihood issues and it wants enough space in all those matters for policy actions.

The four-day 13th Ministerial Conference (MC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) started on February 26.

New Delhi is pressing for a permanent solution to the issue of public stock holding of grains for food security programmes and has asked developed countries engaged in distant water fishing to stop providing any kind of subsidies for 25 years, India is also pressing for ending moratorium on imposing customs duties on e-commerce trade.

India and South Africa have blocked a proposal led by China on investment facilitation stating that the agenda is out of the WTO mandate.

It has also asked for restoration of the appellate body of the WTO's dispute settlement system. The US has been blocking the appointments of judges in the body since 2019, due to which the system is not working smoothly.

New Delhi is pitching for finding a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding (PSH) for its food security programmes.

PSH programme is a policy tool under which the government procures crops like rice and wheat from farmers at minimum support price (MSP), and stores and distributes foodgrains to the poor.

As part of a permanent solution, India has asked for measures like amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India is a consensus builder, but some countries are breaking that consensus.