NEW DELHI: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have come together to demand that concerns over support for public stockholding of foodgrains – an issue critical for procurement – along with special safeguard measures to check surge in import of agricultural products be addressed in the Geneva-based trade body’s committee on agriculture instead of focusing on all issues through a “facilitator-driven” approach, being pushed by the WTO secretariat.
While the committees are the forum for formal talks, in a facilitator-led approach, an informal group is created to build consensus. For over a decade, India and several other countries have been demanding that the issue of public stockholding be addressed so that the interests of poor and developing countries are protected but the US, the European Union along with Canada and Australia have blocked a solution.
“We take this opportunity to express our concerns regarding the decision to commence the facilitator-led process. We note that there appears to be no clear consensus to proceed in the proposed manner. Members’ concerns largely remain unresolved, and any actions based on the assumption of consensus would not reflect the collective agreement of the members to move further,” the joint communication by the three countries from the sub-continent said.
It also said that there was no consensus on the issue when heads of delegations from WTO member nations met last month or when the trade negotiations committee met, indicating how the issue is being driven to serve the interests of a few countries. The African group, which has been supporting the issue, as well as some of the others such as Indonesia were not on board, at least at the moment.
