In US, PM Narendra Modi stood firm on agriculture subsidy NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama held Prime Minister Narendra Modis hand during their meeting at the White House on September 29. The US too has agriculture subsidies, he told Modi, but a solution was needed to open Indias block on the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) which had held up the only meaningful deal under the WTO in recent years. That conversation began the earnest search for a way out of the WTO deadlock. India, however, continued with its hardline stand, insisting on its right to give food subsidies to its poorest millions. As Modi prepares to travel to Myanmar and Australia for the ASEAN and G-20 summits, Indian officials familiar with the developments say they are merely correcting the misperceptions created by the Bali agreement. Government sources expect India and WTO will reach an agreement on keeping the so-called `peace clause going forever, the responsibility for which has been placed with insisting on its right to give food subsidies to its poorest millions. As Modi prepares to travel to Myanmar and Australia for the ASEAN and G-20 summits, Indian officials familiar with the developments say they are merely correcting the misperceptions created by the Bali agreement. Government sources expect India and WTO will reach an agreement on keeping the so-called `peace clause going forever, the responsibility for which has been placed with Anjali Prasad and Indias chief WTO negotiator J S Deepak. At Bali, the introduction of the four-year `peace clause in the TFA was interpreted very differently by India and the developed world. While New Delhi expected a deal on food subsidies to be completed by then, Indian officials said the West went into a radio silence on this. After 2017, India would be penalized heavily for its subsidy programme. With a permanent `peace clause, the heat will now be on the WTO member-countries, particularly from the developed world, to speed up negotiations on the food subsidy issue, which is what India has been asking for. The developed countries have been asking India to move its subsidy programme to those that are allowed under the WTO rather than the MSP route. Even if India agrees, the migration would take several years. While officials expect an agreement to be struck in the next few days, , they said India would not waver, even though the government, specifically the PM, has clarified that the country would only benefit from signing the TFA, which would streamline customs practices worldwide.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 16:08:57 +0000
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