{"id":190479,"date":"2022-06-14T20:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T14:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=190479"},"modified":"2022-06-18T18:54:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T13:24:08","slug":"free-trade-cant-yet-pass-a-basic-food-security-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/free-trade-cant-yet-pass-a-basic-food-security-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Free trade can\u2019t yet pass a basic food security test\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News:<\/strong> At present, the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference is being held in Geneva. Food security is one of the agenda on the discussion table on the ministerial conference.<\/p>\n

Importance of Free Trade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Free trade ensures that agricultural products flow from zones of abundance to regions of scarcity, just as the free exchange of ideas, goods and services. This eases hunger and maximizes nutrition.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ultimate Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

Agriculture has always been the final frontier of trade, given national anxieties over food sufficiency. For example, India has been criticized for its ban of private wheat exports.<\/p>\n

The governments are running a massive food security programme<\/strong>. They procure harvests from farmers at prices not determined by the market. This imposes ecological costs, results in fiscal bloat,<\/strong> and keeps grain supply out of sync with demand.<\/p>\n

Proximate Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ukraine War has led to barriers to free trade. For example, trade has been weaponized for geopolitical aims. The Ukraine war has led to a wheat-supply squeeze<\/strong>. Now the costs of farm input<\/strong> have soared up.\u00a0 Over two-thirds of humanity<\/strong> is living in countries that are net importers of food. <\/strong>The United Nations recently estimated that 276 million people are at risk of starvation.<\/p>\n

What are the issues with WTO farm subsidy rules?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are issues in the 10% subsidy limit rule. It was calculated based on prices of 1986-88, when food was much cheaper.<\/p>\n

The rule placed burdens on developing economies,<\/strong>\u00a0while the rich world<\/strong> found various opportunities for its own farms. Therefore, in 2013, a tentative \u201cpeace clause”<\/strong> was inserted at the Bali meet. It granted immunities to the countries from being charged with 10% rule violation.<\/p>\n

The Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

As fair-trade requires a level playing field<\/strong>. Therefore, the elimination of distortive subsidies<\/strong> is a key enabler.<\/p>\n

Today, the circumstances have changed. Therefore, the WTO\u2019s subsidy rules<\/strong> need an update. The revised rules should be made on food stockpiling, which offers autonomy in assuring our people’s food security.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In general, India must foster free trade. India should adapt our farm sector to market forces. In other words, there is a need for market-oriented farm reforms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cFree trade can\u2019t yet pass a basic food security test\u201d published in the Live Mint on 13th<\/sup> June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: At present, the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference is being held in Geneva. Food security is one of the agenda on the discussion table on the ministerial conference. Importance of Free Trade Free trade ensures that agricultural products flow from zones of abundance to regions of scarcity, just as the free exchange… Continue reading Free trade can\u2019t yet pass a basic food security test\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-190479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704886866},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}