New Delhi: Asserting its sovereign duty to protect the fundamental right of citizens to life and livelihood, India on Tuesday expressed confidence that it will be able to persuade the WTO membership to appreciate its sensitivities and take the issue forward in a positive spirit.
The government said India cannot accept the "unrealistic" proposal of the developed world on subsidies on foodgrain stockholding and wanted "timely correction of any imbalances or anomalies in the working of the system or its rules" to ensure that the WTO "works impartially and fairly in the interest of all its members and not just a select few".
Making a statement in the Lok Sabha on the recent failed WTO talks, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India is an "unwavering votary" of the multilateral trading system and reiterates its commitment to the WTO.
"We continue to believe that it is in the best interest of developing countries, especially the poorest, most marginalised ones among them, and we are determined to work to strengthen this institution," she said against the backdrop of the US blaming India for stalling an agreement at the recent talks in Geneva.
Regretting the failure of the recent WTO talks, she said "a permanent solution on food security is a must for us and we cannot wait endlessly in a state of uncertainty while the WTO engages in an academic debate on the subject" which is what "some developed countries seem to be suggesting before they are ready to engage on this important issue".
Emphasising that India will not waiver in its commitment to protect the interests of the consumers and producers, Sitharaman said "developing countries such as India must have the freedom to use food reserves to feed their poor without the threat of violating any international obligations. This is our sovereign right. It is our duty to protect our citizens' fundamental rights to life and livelihood."
Keeping the hope alive on the negotiations, she said, "I am confident that India will be able to persuade the WTO membership to appreciate the sensitivities of India and other developing countries and see their way of taking this issue forward in a positive spirit."
Referring to the issue as a "real problem", Sitharaman said without a permanent solution, public stockholding programmes in India and other developing countries will be hampered by the present ceiling on domestic support" which is pegged at 10 per cent of the value of production and is "wrongly considered as trade-distorting subsidy to farmers under existing WTO rules."
The existence of such a subsidy element is determined by comparing present day administered prices with fixed reference prices of the 1986-88 period, which is "unrealistic", the Commerce Minister said.
While exhorting the WTO to move forward in a positive spirit, she said this would be a major contribution by this institution towards meeting the global challenge of food insecurity and would convey a strong message that the WTO is genuinely committed to the cause of development.
Justifying India's tough stance at the recent talks "despite immense pressure", she said the government is committed to protecting the interests of the country's farmers "against all odds".
Sitharaman said Indian farmers work in "extremely adverse conditions", most of them at the mercy of the vagaries of the monsoon which is aggravated now by climate change.
"For farmers in many developing countries, farming is a subsistence activity, not a commercial one. We are committed to their welfare," she said amid thumping of desks.
"We have to look after both consumer and producer interests. We have to enable our people to live a life of dignity by ensuring access to an adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices," the minister asserted.
Attacking the developed nations for putting pressure on developing countries over subsidy issue, she said they "continue to have large entitlements to provide support to farmers. These would have been cut in the Doha Development Round which unfortunately remains unfinished."
She said "had this Round, which has development at its core, concluded as per the agreed timelines and its development agenda, the world would have had an outcome in a single undertaking in which competing interests could have been balanced."
