Indian Agriculture and the Multilateral Trading System
Brajesh Jha
Bookwell
XXVI+275 pages/Rs 545
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The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has often been presented as a dreaded fiend. Thanks to political instability in recent years, most political parties have been part of the ruling dispensations at the Centre and have acquisced to the pursuit of economic reforms as required under the new international multilateral trading system.
Still, when out of power, they seek to dub the new economic order as the bane of all ills afflicting the economy, especially agriculture. Farmers have thus started fearing the WTO even without knowing what the WTO is all about.
There are basically two reasons for this. First, the Indian agriculture, though not as heavily subsidised as in some other countries, has been meticulously protected against any possible competition from abroad. Dread of the unknown is, therefore, not wholly abnormal.
Second, the understanding of the provisions of the international agreement on agriculture has been lacking even among the opinion makers, none of whom was taken into confidence before signing the accord.
In fact, for quite some time after the WTO became a reality, senior officials in the agriculture ministry had not seen the text of the agreement. Some genuine concerns, therefore, began emerging as the implications began to unfold.
The situation has, however, changed now. The provisions of the accord have not only been studied thoroughly but also debated intensely to decipher the fine print. But much of the literature on this subject has either been pro- or anti-WTO. There are not many publications that have taken an objective and holistic view of the whole issue.
It is from this viewpoint that Brajesh Jha