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As the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) ninth ministerial conference (MC9) entered its third day, talks seemed gaining a peculiar momentum, even as there were loud murmurs of a “stiff India” — Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had ruled out compromise on the food security issue and urged developed countries to show grit and flexibility.
With an uncanny silence presiding over negotiations all day, the danger of an impending collapse loomed. Even rumours of Sharma “flying out of Indonesia” and “walking out from MC9” peaked, as he did not attend the gala dinner hosted by Indonesia, the chair country. The minister, however, was seen walking in and out of meetings as he shuttled from one venue to another, holding some “last-minute make-or-break talks” with WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo and US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, even past midnight.
“Talks are on... These are interesting times but I stand by what I said,” Sharma said after his meeting with the USTR and the WTO D-G. At the time of going to press, talks were still on and there was a strong possibility of a breakthrough.
Sources told Business Standard Sharma maintained a “no compromise, non-negotiable” stance publicly, especially on the food security issue, while he sent out the message of a relaxed and conciliatory approach during his private negotiations with representatives of key countries.
After his meeting with Sharma, Azevêdo was believed to have called a meeting with the European Union delegation. According to highly-placed sources present at the closed-door meetings, “it will become easy to pursue the Europeans if the US comes on board. India is only asking for an interim solution to continue till a permanent one is put in place”.
However, the Europeans were critical of India’s position at the meet and termed Sharma’s stand “political”. A high-powered panel of Members of European Parliament lambasted India for not being ready to “compromise”.
“For India, unfortunately, it is political. It is not an agriculture policy but a social one,” said Vital Moreira, the head of the European Parliamentarian delegation, also the chairman of the Committee on International Trade.
He was not the only one criticising India’s stance. According to Helmut Scholz, another member of the European Parliament and Committee on International Trade, India “cannot hold WTO hostage for its own domestic national interest”.
The Europeans lashed out at India’s food security programme, under which it was providing staple food to the poor at subsidised rates. They said India was “misusing the mechanism. The amendment of agreement on agriculturem simply cannot be done. This is as simple as that. Why cannot India and China understand,” Moreira asked.
Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Sharma had said: “There’s not going to be a collapse. There have been past meetings that yielded no results and, shall we say, those who collapsed those meetings, but WTO survives. We have not come here to collapse any meeting. India is committed to a positive outcome from Bali. India is committed to a balanced and fair outcome, particularly in public stockholding and food security. It is better to have no agreement than to have a bad agreement.”
Sources said it was clear India was now looking beyond the horizons of Bali and taking negotiations back to the drawing table in Geneva.
At the time of going to press, major fire-fighting was on inside the negotiating rooms that were abuzz late in the night, even as the rest of the island was in deep slumber, with only the seas roaring.
