WTO: India to push hard for long-stalled Doha agenda in 2016

New Delhi: After a 'disappointing' year at WTO, India is looking to beef up its efforts in 2016 to push for early conclusion of the long-stalled Doha Round talks at the global trade body and for finding a permanent solution to food security issues. 

At its recent Nairobi meet, the World Trade Organisation failed to address the concerns of developing countries, resulting in India coming back 'thoroughly disappointed' as far as the 14-year-old Doha commitments are concerned. 

Successful conclusion of the Doha Round agenda has been very important for developing countries and one of the main pending issues is a commitment from rich nations to substantially reduce their farm subsidies. 

India registered its strong disappointment over non-reaffirmation of the Doha Development Agenda in the Nairobi declaration despite several nations backing Indian view on this matter. 
Despite the WTO meeting getting extended by a day amid hectic parleys, the trade ministers of WTO member countries concluded their talks on December 19 without any commitment from developed countries on cutting farm subsidies. 

A senior official said that India would now take up the issue of Doha Round as also about public stockholding for food security purposes in 2016. Experts feel India and other developing countries would need to negotiate hard for ensuring a positive outcome. 

"They may also need to have a clear position on how to address demands (of developed countries) on the so-called new issues," Head of Centre for WTO Studies Abhijit Das said. 

Rich nations including the US want the WTO to start negotiations on new issues such as e-commerce, investments and government procurement, rather than further discussions on the Doha Round related issues. 

After returning from Nairobi, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said India will pursue with greater vigour a work programme for finding a permanent solution to the food security issue besides continuing the fight for reaffirmation of Doha Round Biswajit Dhar, Professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning of Jawaharlal Nehru University, said 2015 has been disappointing for India as far as developments at the WTO are concerned. 

The Nairobi Ministerial did not take any firm decisions regarding some of the key issues that India and several other developing countries had flagged, especially on agriculture, Dhar said. "What could hurt countries like India more is the lack of consensus to continue with the negotiations in the Doha Round. 

The Doha mandate provides the best opportunity to move towards a just trading regime. "In 2016, India would have to re-double its efforts to get the Doha negotiations on track. 

This is possible only by building strong developing country coalitions, which was missing in 2015," Dhar said.   The Nairobi declaration said that WTO members have different views on how to address the negotiations on the Doha Round issues. 

In the New Year, India would also discuss framing a work-plan for special safeguard mechanism (SSM) as it is important for poor farmers of developing nations such as India in case of sudden surge in imports or dip in global commodity prices. 

The Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001 have remained stalled since July 2008 when the trade ministers' meeting in Geneva collapsed due to differences between the rich and the developing nations mainly on the level of protection for farmers in developing countries. 

To find a permanent solution to the public stockholding issue for food security purposes, India had proposed either amending the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap of 10 percent, which is based on the reference price of 1986-88, or allowing such schemes outside the purview of subsidy caps. 

The food security issue concerns several developing nations which provide subsidised food grains to their poor.