NEW DELHI: Regardless of the latest present of India-US bonhomie on commerce points, the problem of public procurement of grains by FCI, referred to as public stockholding in worldwide parlance, is proving to be a significant bone of contentions forward of subsequent month’s ministerial assembly of WTO, the place authorities is pushing for sealing a last deal.
India desires a “everlasting resolution”, one thing that was agreed to over a decade in the past, so that there’s certainty round its procurement programme for wheat and rice, as a substitute of a short lived resolution the place any breach in prescribed restrict will be challenged. The US and the EU have, nonetheless, used it as a bargaining instrument to push their agenda and delay a choice each two years.
At a gathering in Geneva on Tuesday, the US is claimed to have bluntly stated that discovering a everlasting resolution was “not doable” at subsequent month’s assembly in UAE, given the divergence in views.
Indian officers, nonetheless, insisted that public stockholding needs to be handled individually on a fast-track, with out linkages as per the present mandates, and demanded an answer by subsequent month, sources acquainted with deliberations stated.
On the assembly, the US officers argued that “peace clause”, which permits international locations to keep away from any dispute at WTO until a everlasting resolution is discovered, has helped India procure rice above market worth and turn into the most important rice exporter, a cost that authorities has denied.
Other than India, a number of different creating international locations, together with China and African and Caribbean nations, are pushing for an answer at a time when meals safety is on the core of presidency coverage, contemplating scarcity of grains and import restrictions in a number of components of the world.
India desires a “everlasting resolution”, one thing that was agreed to over a decade in the past, so that there’s certainty round its procurement programme for wheat and rice, as a substitute of a short lived resolution the place any breach in prescribed restrict will be challenged. The US and the EU have, nonetheless, used it as a bargaining instrument to push their agenda and delay a choice each two years.
At a gathering in Geneva on Tuesday, the US is claimed to have bluntly stated that discovering a everlasting resolution was “not doable” at subsequent month’s assembly in UAE, given the divergence in views.
Indian officers, nonetheless, insisted that public stockholding needs to be handled individually on a fast-track, with out linkages as per the present mandates, and demanded an answer by subsequent month, sources acquainted with deliberations stated.
On the assembly, the US officers argued that “peace clause”, which permits international locations to keep away from any dispute at WTO until a everlasting resolution is discovered, has helped India procure rice above market worth and turn into the most important rice exporter, a cost that authorities has denied.
Other than India, a number of different creating international locations, together with China and African and Caribbean nations, are pushing for an answer at a time when meals safety is on the core of presidency coverage, contemplating scarcity of grains and import restrictions in a number of components of the world.
