India slams WTO's two drafts favouring developed countries

NAIROBI: India has retaliated against the efforts of the developed countries’ attempts to pull the plug on the development issues in the WTO, junking two draft texts with an obvious tilt in favour of the developed countries. New Delhi is now working on new texts with a language suitable to the developing countries in which it will insist on a permanent solution for food security, special safeguard mechanism (SSM) for protecting domestic industry besides vehemently opposing the inclusion of new issues in the WTO mandate.

This looks like a repeat of the Bali ministerial two years ago. India is fighting to secure its interest in Nairobi but the only difference is that this time it is not isolated. “A surprise has sprung on us…We are submitting a draft ministerial text with a language suitable for India. There will be no new issues unless the Doha agenda is fulfilled. We will insist and wait for a permanent solution for food security,” commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a couple of hours after the Nairobi ministerial declaration was unofficially circulated.

The six page draft ministerial text clearly states that the WTO should have the ability to take any trade related issues deemed for it to stay relevant on an “exploratory basis”.

Early in the day, India was got a rude shock when the first draft of the WTO’s committee on agriculture did not reiterate 2017 as the deadline for a permanent solution for food security concerns and linked SSM with the broader context of agricultural market access — the latter being demanded by Brazil.

India has asserted that it has not given up on the public stockholding issue and wants it to be included in the preamble of the Nairobi declaration. It also wants an SSM delinked from market access.