 "WTO postpones TFA, food security meet till tomorrow")
A special meeting of the General Council, the WTO’s highest decision-making body, is now likely be convened on Thursday. The meeting has two items on its agenda — adoption of the TFA protocol and allowing the food security peace clause to continue till a permanent solution to the issue of subsidies under public stockholding programmes is arrived at.
It appeared a handful of countries wanted some more time and sought a “more defined and direct” understanding of the Bali work programme, agreed in December last year. Apparently, the plan of signing the TFA and amending the peace clause would remain unchanged, officials told Business Standard.
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According to a senior official, Pakistan was the first country to have objected to the meeting being conducted on Wednesday. Apparently, Pakistan has expressed concern over India’s food stockholding programme, saying this might “distort trade in neighbouring countries”. Pakistan had also opposed the grant of a peace clause for India’s food stockholding programme during the ninth ministerial meeting in Bali in December last year.
Argentina, too, put pressure on WTO to give equal importance to all the issues under the Bali deal, not to India’s food security demand alone. Finally, the LDCs wanted the WTO to fast-track talks for a stimulus package for them, also a crucial part of the Bali pact.
It is learnt all these issues came to the fore when WTO director general, Roberto Azevêdo, called an urgent meeting of all delegations to circulate the draft statement of the General Council, as well as the negotiating texts. Finally, it was decided the draft statement would be modified to take into account all aspects of the Bali package, not just TFA and food security.
“We are very, very close to a successful conclusion of our efforts to overcome the impasse. Significantly, the decisions on public stockholding and trade facilitation have not changed at all ... We are at the end of a very long journey. Tomorrow (Thursday), we just have to take the final step,” Azevêdo said after the meeting.
The preparatory committee on trade facilitation (PCTF) is also expected to meet at the WTO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday. As such, the WTO secretariat wanted to hold the two meetings together. “It’s not a big drama, merely the fact that some delegations needed a bit more time and wanted the reference to the ongoing work programme,” said WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell.
In July this year, India had struck down a proposal to convert the TFA, aimed at easing global Customs rules, into a legally binding agreement. This was because the country wanted a parallel agreement on continuation of the peace clause till a final solution to the issue of farm subsidies by developing countries was arrived at.
According to the Bali agreement, India and other developing countries were allowed to use the peace clause only for a period of four years.
On November 13, India and the US reached an understanding that while India would sign the TFA, the US would support its demand for a peace clause by amending the Bali agreement. Subsequently, the WTO decided to hold a special meeting to seek a wider consensus from member countries. This is to be followed up with a formal meeting of the General Council, expected next month.
While India has maintained it does not have any issue with the TFA, it raised some issues during the previous PCTF meeting in September, saying work on the pact was not yet over.
In a letter to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, farmers and civil society organisations had said the pact “lacks merit”.
“It can lead to moving resources away from essential development expenditure, while our industry is hardly ready to reap the benefits of the agreement, at least in the near to medium future,” they had said.