India stands firm on objections to WTO Doha Round deal

United Nations Even as the World Trade Organisations trade deal remained stalled due to Indias objections an Indian envoy at the UN stood firm on them declaring a permanent solution on food security with necessary changes in World Trade Organisation WTO rules if required is a must and cannot be kicked down the roadAmit Narang a Counsellor at Indias UN Mission has said that the trade agreement cannot be about negotiating livelihood security and subsistence of hundreds of millions of farmersWhile New Delhi was committed to the decisions reached at a meeting of ministers last December in Bali that form the core of the trade deal and has no intention of going back on them he said The issue of food security is central to the pursuit of poverty eradication and sustainable development in developing countries and must be treated with the same urgency as other issues if not moreThe WTOs deal on global trade known as the Doha Round for the place where the current negotiations were launched in 2001 has been blocked almost singlehandedly by India over the agriculture issuesOn Tuesday in Geneva WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo acknowledged the impasse and announced that negotiations would continue I will be convening meetings but as always the substance will be up to you Whether and how we make progress will be in your hands he was quoted as telling the 160member organisationThe crux of Indias objections are the WTO limits on agriculture subsidies at 10 per cent of the total value of foodgrain production and on stockpiling foodgrains Complying with the Food Security Act passed last year that guarantees subsidised foodgrains to about 70 percent of the nations population could result in breaching these limits leading to penalties for IndiaAcknowledging that concluding the Doha Round was urgent Narang told the UN General Assembly Committee that deals with finance and economics We must be clear that this Round is not about the perpetuation of structural flaws in global trade especially in agricultureHe added It is indeed paradoxical that just as we assign a high priority to food security as part of the Post2015 Development Agenda and even as it has been included as a prominent UN Sustainable Development Goal there seems reluctance in addressing this important issue as part of global trade rulesIndia has been under pressure from several countries particularly the US to drop its objections to the deal known formally as the Trade Facilitation AgreementNarang Tuesday at the same committee raised a global financial issue that has been held up by the US and suggested exploring options to end the impasseA proposal to reform the governance of the International Monetary Fund and change its votes quota that was agreed upon in 2010 and has the support of President Obamas administration has been snagged in domestic US politics failing to gain the requisite votes to pass at the IMFIt is important for these reforms to be completed by the end of this year he said In case this does not happen due to nonratification by some members we must explore every available option for completing the current round of the quota reform processThe reforms would enhance the voting powers of India and emerging market and developing countries to reflect that changes in the world economyNarang said We need to have multilateral mechanisms that have full and effective participation of developing countries if genuine global coordination is to be achieved