India among 80 pushing text-based talks on public stockholding at WTO

India and China, among 80 members, have sought text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to find a permanent solution on public stockholding (PSH) for food security at the ministerial-level meeting of the global trade body in February next year. Developing countries and the African Group are pushing for a food security package at the 2024 conference.

At a meeting of the WTO Committee on Agriculture this week, India also criticised developed countries and those against text-based negotiations for their stubbornness and unwillingness to move from old positions.

"India has stated that there is no excuse for a tight timeline, text-based negotiations and PSH," said a Geneva-based official, adding that there were divergent views regarding the content of the package, the scope of the outcome, and the level of ambition.


The statement assumes significance with certain Cairns Group members including Canada and Australia pushing for the need to address food security within the context of overall agriculture reform and reduction of trade-distorting domestic subsidies.

"New Delhi dismissed arguments for alternative food security solutions beyond PSH and special safeguard mechanism (SSM)," the official added. SSM is key to check sudden import surges and price drops.

As per India, market access and export restriction are not worth the effort. It also argued for the need to recalculate the external reference prices to reflect the impact of inflation and other economic factors on food stock prices.

Since members were unable to arrive at an agreement on the agriculture reform work plan at the 12th ministerial conference last year, the WTO countries insisted that food security package should be at the heart of the MC13 outcome.

Discussions are expected on various elements of public stockholding issue, such as external reference price, product coverage, transparency requirements, anti-circumvention, safeguard provisions, and the importance of preserving access to dispute settlement.

South Africa has said that the MC13 outcome should prioritise a food security package that places small farmers' livelihoods at the centre, while also working towards levelling the playing field by reducing trade-distorting subsidies.

The chair of the committee has asked members to identify three important elements that are acceptable to all so that the negotiations can be restarted with focused discussions on PSH.

On SSM, officials said, no significant progress was made due to the different interpretations of the relationship between SSM and market access.

India, China, South Africa and Sri Lanka argued that there should be no connection between SSM and market access, and that SSM is a critical policy tool that allows developing countries to increase tariffs temporarily in the event of sudden import surges and price drops.