{"id":73887,"date":"2020-12-21T18:03:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T12:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=73887"},"modified":"2020-12-22T12:02:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T06:32:39","slug":"wto-rulebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wto-rulebook\/","title":{"rendered":"WTO rulebook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong>: WTO rulebook must evolve to support food security and rural livelihoods in developing countries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the existing issues related to India?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whether the current farm subsidy rules provide enough room for developing countries to buy food at government-set\u00a0<strong>minimum support prices<\/strong>\u00a0as part of their public stockholding programmes.<\/li>\n<li>To negotiate a permanent solution.<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s farm subsidy notification this year to the WTO\u2019s committee on agriculture brought the topic of procurement under public stockholding programmes.<\/li>\n<li>It indicated that India had breached its agreed ceiling on product-specific support to rice during marketing year 2018-19.<\/li>\n<li>For example, India\u2019s wheat support was close to breaching product-specific support ceilings, with administered prices at $263.15\/tonne.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What are the underlying issues with WTO?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Delays<\/strong>: many countries pursuing improved market access and closer economic integration through bilateral and regional talks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Paralysed dispute settlement function<\/strong>: Donald Trump administration\u2019s decision to veto new appointments to the WTO\u2019s appellate body leaving many to question the future of the rules-based multilateral trading system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Method of calculation<\/strong>: Market price support levels are calculated by taking the gap between applied administered prices and an external reference price or ERP, set at 1986-88 levels, and multiplying this by the volume of eligible production.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Divergent views on benchmark<\/strong>: WTO members could usefully consider whether the fixed ERP of 1986-88 is still a relevant benchmark, especially in the wake of the global price hikes of 2007-08 and 2010-11.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current scenario<\/strong>: food security disruption caused by US-China trade tensions and the inconclusive outcome of the WTO\u2019s 2018 ministerial conference in Buenos Aires.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How does Indian subsidies doesn\u2019t distort market?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s support turns out to be negative for the years since 2000-01,\u00a0<strong>if domestic market prices are compared with international market prices<\/strong>\u00a0using the Producer Support Estimate methodology applied by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).<\/li>\n<li>Even after accounting for input subsidies, which represent a significant share of India\u2019s non-product-specific support using the WTO system for calculating farm support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way forward:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Updating the reference prices<\/strong>\u00a0to average 2014-16 or 2016-18 levels or using a rolling average instead flattening out volatility by excluding the highest and lowest years from a five-year period.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exempt support from counting towards maximum limits<\/strong>\u00a0when administered prices are set below international market price levels.<\/li>\n<li>Members could also\u00a0<strong>discount support consumed by subsistence farmers<\/strong>\u00a0themselves from the calculation of the volume of eligible production or\u00a0<strong>exempting procurement<\/strong>\u00a0that only equates to a small share of domestic output.<\/li>\n<li>WTO members need to agree on a\u00a0<strong>shared framework for action on farm subsidy reform<\/strong>\u00a0and set a clear direction and a timeframe for reaching a rational conclusion.<\/li>\n<li>Minimise disruption in food supply chain.<\/li>\n<li>The December meeting of the General Council that is mulling over WFP food aid issues offers India (with G-20) an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to WFP food aid and help\u00a0<strong>rebuild confidence in WTO\u2019s ability<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An agreement under WTO could also lay the groundwork for long-overdue progress on the wider trade and food security agenda at the WTO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: WTO rulebook must evolve to support food security and rural livelihoods in developing countries. What are the existing issues related to India? Whether the current farm subsidy rules provide enough room for developing countries to buy food at government-set\u00a0minimum support prices\u00a0as part of their public stockholding programmes. To negotiate a permanent solution. India\u2019s farm&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wto-rulebook\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WTO rulebook<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":73893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1354],"class_list":["post-73887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-eco_3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WTO-rulebook.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704915006},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73887","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=73887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}