| Date: |
01-10-2015 |
| Subject: |
India to focus on food security & special safeguards at G-20 trade ministers’ meet |
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NEW DELHI: India will press for the right to raise tariffs on farm goods if flooding of such imports or fall in their prices threaten the livelihood of its poor farmers. Officials say Delhi is likely to push for special safeguard provisions — a mechanism available only to 39 countries at present — at the upcoming G-20 trade ministers' meeting.
Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who will participate in the two-day meeting in Istanbul on October 5-6, is expected to take up the issue of Indian farmers in the overall context of India's food security concerns ahead of a high-level WTO meeting in December. Safeguards are contingency restrictions on imports and can be triggered automatically when the import volumes rise above a certain level or the prices fall below a certain level.
For agricultural products, it is not necessary to demonstrate that domestic producers have suffered serious injury. India has maintained that the developing countries like it should be allowed to keep appropriate levels of tariff bindings (a commitment not to increase a rate of duty beyond an agreed level) reflecting their developmental requirements. Besides, these tariff commitments by developing countries will be linked to reduction in domestic support and market access offered by the developed countries.
Food security weighs high on Delhi's agenda and with the US circulating a proposal seeking dismantling of input subsidies given by developing countries to farmers just before the December trade talks in Nairobi, it is keen to push for these special measures. The US proposal could deal a huge blow to India's efforts to secure a permanent solution for its food security problem and the overall Doha Development Agenda.
"The G-33 had been talking about special safeguards measures and we may ask the developed countries to lend their support to this. We need some concrete decisions by Nairobi," said an official.
Even though developed countries such as the US, Australia and the EU figure among the 39 countries having accessed the special safeguards for agricultural products in the previous Uruguay Round, they have been opposing developing countries' demands for the same.
Besides emphasizing on its food security concerns ahead of the high-level World Trade Organization meeting in December, India is likely to pitch for a special package for the least developed countries to assist them to comply with the WTO's trade facilitation deal at the two-day meeting. Another official said the issue of intellectual property rights is also likely to come up in the meeting as India is in the process of drafting a policy for the sector and seeking Cabinet approval for the same.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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