India, China to highlight food security issues at WTO meet

India and China have joined hands to present a paper highlighting issues faced by developing countries, including matters related to food security, at the WTO ministerial meeting in Nairobi, a senior official said.The move is aimed at strongly presenting the views of developing countries at the forthcoming ministerial meeting in Nairobi, scheduled in December.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May, the two countries had decided to have a special mechanism to discuss issues at the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks as they have similar views on many issues.“India and China are jointly co-ordinating on WTO issues. It will help in putting forward the views of developing countries in the Nairobi meeting,” the official said, adding the group would meet shortly to discuss all the issues which are of interest to developing countries.

“India and China will submit a joint paper in the WTO on issues of interest to developing countries,” the official added.Besides food security, the other issues of common interest to India and China include a cut in agri-subsidies by the developed nations. The next Ministerial Conference, which is the highest decision making body of the WTO, is slated to be held from December 15-18 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Both the countries are pitching for a permanent solution on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes. Ending months-long deadlock, the WTO in November last year acceded to India's demand to remove constraints on the food stockpiling issue.The WTO's General Council, the highest decision making body of the organisation, accepted India's demand for extending the peace clause till a permanent solution is found on the food stockpiling issue. This has enabled India to continue procurement and stocking of foodgrain for distribution to poor under its food security programme without attracting any kind of action from WTO members even if it breaches the 10 per cent subsidy cap as prescribed by the multilateral trade body.

India, the official said, wants that all issues including Doha Round matters, should be taken up in the Nairobi meeting as ‘cherry picking of issues’ would not help the multi-lateral body.The Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001 have remained stalled since July 2008 due to differences between the rich and the developing nations mainly over the subsidies given to farmers.India wants to bring back issues related to the long-stalled Doha round including agriculture such as export subsidies, cotton and fishery subsidies and market access.