India And WTO

Why has India taken this stance at the WTO?

Why does the west object to Indias stance?

What is the bone of contention between the two? What are their individual concerns?

Please provide more clarity on the DOHA rounds of negotiation and why they have been a failure.

Simply put, we have a huge population to feed. 27% are BPL. We need to ensure food security.

The countries demanded that no stocking of foods were to be permitted as it would affect the world prices. Within 3 years, all stocks to be reduced to allow market pricing of food items.

This was not in our interest. So we objected to it, including on the baseline principle and asked for more time.

TFA was important for other countries as India offers a huge market. In addition, since it is by consensus.

Our vote was important and so we played the card.

On the issue of why Doha has still not been able to reach a consensus is because all countries have to agree on all things.

Food for the goose is food for the gander does not work in IR. My interest and your interest varies. So finding common ground is very difficult. Particularly if the topic is so complex as trade and food security

How public stock holding will affect the world price sir?

Thailand, Vietnam and India are the three major rice exporting countries.

Last to last year, a scheme was brought in by Thailand to acquire rice, well above the market price and stock it to be released into the world market at the time there was much demand by fixing price at a higher level.

It is a different matter that it did not work out completely as planned by some, as after some years, we had excess production and Indian rice came into the market, bringing the price down.

So stocking can at any point affect world prices

Another example is OPEC countries.

They decide how much to pump to manage world prices

So many countries opposed stocking and we opposed their opposition on the grounds of self-interest.

Sir Doha can never ever reach consensus rite sir?

I would not say so, negotiations are on and am sure there would be a solution.

As long as the agreement serves the countries' interest, consensus can always be achieved.

Negotiations are required to arrive at that. The sooner the better

What could be pragmatic solution should we give while answering Sir?

Doha round is a packaged round of talks.. "Nothing is agreed till everything is agreed"... So due to difference in opinion on some issues, the entire Doha round is getting delayed.

Sir food security act provide rice wheat at so cheap prices to large population, isn't it against development as it is provided almost at free of cost?

The fundamental duty of any country is to ensure development, provide food and security for its population. We happen to be a huge population country and so our problems are large. That should not deter us in accepting our responsibility and explaining it to the world.

How we manage it domestically is another issue all together

We justify on the basis of rights of a human being to food