India committed to protecting farmers' interest at WTO: Nirmala Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: The government today said it's committed to protecting interest of its farmers at the World Trade Organisation ( WTO).

"The government is committed to the cause of farmers and has taken a consistent stand at WTO to protect their interest," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

She said that at WTO, India has consistently pursued the objective of protecting the interests of its farmers both for implementation of current rules and negotiations of new ones.

"For example, under the relevant rules of WTO, if procurement for public stock-holding programmes for food security purposes is done at administered prices, rather than at market prices, then the subsidy element, if any, has to be kept within certain prescribed limits," she said.

In order to ensure this does not constrain food security operations in developing countries, India successfully negotiated an outcome which safeguards the country's minimum support price operations and commits WTO members to finding a permanent solution on the issue, she added.

The next WTO ministerial meeting is scheduled in Nairobi in Kenya on December 15-18.