{"id":33356,"date":"2018-10-30T11:57:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33356"},"modified":"2018-10-30T11:57:59","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:27:59","slug":"crunch-time-at-wto-on-farm-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/crunch-time-at-wto-on-farm-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"Crunch time at WTO: On farm subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/crunch-time-at-wto\/article21386424.ece\"><strong>Crunch time at WTO: On farm subsidies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India faces a tough challenge on farm issues at the Buenos Aires ministerial meet<\/p>\n<p><strong>Backdrop<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>World Trade Organisation\u2019s 11th biennial Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joint Proposal from India and China<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With the backing of more than 100 countries, a joint proposal from India and China to eliminate the most trade-distorting farm subsidies worth $160 billion in several industrialised economies is arguably the most contentious agenda item at the Ministerial<\/li>\n<li>The two countries see this as a prerequisite to address the prevailing imbalance in the Agreement on Agriculture, which unfairly benefits developed countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Views on this Joint Proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The host Argentina has cautioned that the joint proposal could potentially unravel negotiations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lukewarm Stance of the US<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lending credence to such scepticism is the lukewarm stance the U.S. has adopted towards the WTO over the past year, suggesting that the Ministerial meet should serve as a forum for reflection rather than to shape substantive agreements.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Proposals to be discussed<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Relating to new rules on farm subsidies<\/li>\n<li>The elimination of support for unsustainable fisheries<\/li>\n<li>And the regulation of e-commerce etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Major Dispute <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The other major dispute centres on finding a so-called permanent solution to the large subsidies that underpin public stock-holding programmes to bolster food security in the developing world<\/p>\n<p><strong>G-33: Seeking complete exemption from commitments to reduce subsidies<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The G-33 coalition \u2014 which includes Indonesia, China and India \u2014 seeks a complete exemption from commitments to reduce subsidies, such as minimum support prices, from this poverty-alleviation programme<\/li>\n<li><strong>India declined to negotiate<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>New Delhi has declined to negotiate any more trade-offs on this proposal at Buenos Aires, or accept calls for stringent transparency requirements to monitor these schemes<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>EU and Brazil\u2019s conditional support<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The EU and Brazil have expressed broad support for the G-33 coalition\u2019s position on public stock-holding programmes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Condition<\/strong>: But in return they seek agreement on their own proposal to reduce trade-distorting subsidies on a percentage basis, in both advanced and developing economies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>US exploring alternative routes to dispute resolution other than WTO<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Washington has been exploring an alternative, unilateral route away from the formal dispute resolution mechanism of the Geneva-based body to settle perceived and real trade conflicts with partners<\/li>\n<li>It has blocked fresh appointments to fill vacancies on the seven-member WTO appellate body<\/li>\n<li>The risk of Mr. Trump\u2019s protectionist rhetoric translating into economic barriers remains real<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The response to that challenge is to make the gains of globalisation more visible and its transient downsides politically less painful. Trade leaders gathered in Buenos Aires can ill-afford to lose sight of this imperative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crunch time at WTO: On farm subsidies Context India faces a tough challenge on farm issues at the Buenos Aires ministerial meet Backdrop World Trade Organisation\u2019s 11th biennial Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires Joint Proposal from India and China With the backing of more than 100 countries, a joint proposal from India and China to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/crunch-time-at-wto-on-farm-subsidies\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Crunch time at WTO: On farm subsidies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704858112},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}