At WTO meet, India pitches for permanent solution to food stockpile issue

Trade ministers of 164 WTO-member countries are gathering in Abu Dhabi for the 13th ministerial conference (MC13).

New Delhi: India on Monday urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to find a permanent solution to the long-pending public food stock issue, saying it is crucially important for achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030.

“The development agenda would remain incomplete without a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a recorded video statement at the WTO ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.

Goyal added that finding a permanent solution on public stockholding was directly related to achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030.

Public stockholding programme is a policy tool under which the government procures crops like rice and wheat from farmers at 'administered' prices, then stores and distributes foodgrains to the poor.

While India and some other countries argue that food security is a legitimate policy objective, several WTO members have been opposing the stockholding programmes on the ground that it distorts trade.

Trade ministers of the WTO member countries have gathered in Abu Dhabi for the ministerial conference, which is the highest decision-making body of the multilateral trading organisation. The four-day meeting started on Monday. This is the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference referred as MC13

"I am confident that with the collective efforts of all of us, MC13 will engage constructively to give an outcome on the long pending mandated issue of permanent solution on PSH (public stockholding) for food security, send a strong message that the world cares for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised people," Goyal said.

Speaking at the meeting in Abu Dhabi Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal voiced concern over the fragmentation of the multilateral trading system by some member countries by mixing non-trade issues with the WTO agenda.

India explained that it has put forward and propagated a sustainable way of living based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation including through a mass movement for LiFE- “Life Style for Environment” as a key to combating climate change.

It also expressed serious concerns regarding the increasing use of trade protectionist unilateral measures, which are sought to be justified in the guise of environmental protection, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry informed in a statement.

In the second session on Trade and Inclusion, India cautioned members that mixing non-trade topics with WTO rules can lead to greater trade fragmentation. Bringing issues like Gender and MSMEs in the realm of WTO discussions was not practical because these issues were being discussed in other relevant international forums already.