Congress rebuffs FM's charge on '13 WTO ministerial

Congress on Thursday rebutted finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's charge in Parliament that the erstwhile UPA regime had surrendered Indian farmers' interest and food security at the 2013 WTO ministerial in Bali with the then trade minister in Manmohan Singh government, Anand Sharma, accusing her of misleading the House in a bid to justify the "sellout" interim trade deal with the US.

"It is unfortunate and shocking that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has deliberately misinformed Parliament on the agreements reached at 9th WTO ministerial meeting in Bali in December 2013. In her desperation to justify and defend the sellout interim trade deal with the US, she has levelled an unfair allegation, that the Congress-led UPA government had sold out India's right to food security at the WTO meeting in Bali. This is false, incorrect and contradicts the facts on record and WTO's official statement," Sharma said in a statement.

"The fact is that it was India's strong and uncompromising stance that forced the issue of procurement of food grains for public stock holding and livelihood countries on the Bali WTO agenda despite stiff opposition from the US, the European Union, the Cairns group and other developed countries. India fought tenaciously and succeeded in putting together a global coalition of developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean that forced the developed countries to cede ground, agree to negotiate a permanent solution to change the dated WTO rules which India rejected in Bali as inherently flawed and unjust," he said.


Sharma said India secured for itself and other developing countries, protection from any challenge at Bali WTO for any breach until a negotiated permanent solution was put in place. "Bali ministerial had reached 10 agreements which included preferential market access for LDC countries and Trade Facilitation Agreement. India-led coalition of developing countries had only agreed to the WTO agreements after first securing the right of public stockholding of food grains for food security purposes. The Bali ministerial was a resounding victory of countries of the Global South," he said.