Public stockholding of grains to stay 

Public stockholding of grains to stay 

Context

India’s ongoing public stockholding programmes would remain unaffected and continue, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday

Backdrop

The minister’s assurance comes in the wake of the recent Eleventh Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (Nairobi) failing to reach a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes

Minister’s statement

• In a statement he said that in a conference had agreed to extend an existing moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmission in exchange for another moratorium preventing the ever-greening of patents in the pharmaceuticals sector
• Some developed countries sought explicit language on existing safeguards, according to Mr. Prabhu, and the U.S. said it could not agree to a permanent solution
• Our public stockholding programmes, however, continue to be protected due to the interim solution that the government negotiated in 2014, which is available in perpetuity,” he said
  • Moratorium extended: “An existing moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmission was extended for two years in exchange for another moratorium on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights non-violation complaint, which, inter alia, prevents ‘evergreening’ of patents in the pharmaceutical sector, thereby ensuring accessibility and affordability of generic medicines.”

Ministerial declaration

• Prabhu said that members could not arrive at an agreement regarding a ministerial declaration following the conference
• “Ministers could not arrive at an agreed ministerial declaration at the end of the conference on the basis of a draft brought forward from Geneva,” the minister said.
• “As the revised draft ministerial declaration subsequently proposed by the chairperson excluded or failed to adequately include important issues such as multilateralism, the Doha Development Agenda and special and differential treatment of developing countries, India could not support it,” he added