- News>
- World
India takes on developed world on farm subsidies
Cancun, Sept 11: Turning the tables on the developed countries, India has made a forceful plea at the WTO ministerial here saying that the plight of poor farmers were directly linked to subsidies given by industrialised nations to their farmers and the answer lay in correcting such distortions in agriculture.
Cancun, Sept 11: Turning the tables on the developed countries, India has made a forceful plea at the WTO ministerial here saying that the plight of poor farmers were directly linked to subsidies given by industrialised nations to their farmers and the answer lay in correcting such distortions in agriculture.
In an apparent attack on the European Union and the United States trying to thrust their agenda, particularly on agriculture, through the backdoor, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley wanted development dimension to take the centrestage in the negotiations and demanded that the conference move towards a more "inclusive and transparent" decision making process.
In his statement to the fifth WTO ministerial yesterday, Jaitley pointed out that the protection to agriculture in developed countries was four to seven times more than that for manufactured goods. This stimulated over-production in high cost rich countries, shutting out potentially more competitive products from developing countries.
"It is no surprise that over the past few years, agricultural exports from developing countries to developed countries grew at just half the rate they did to other developing countries", he said.
"Let us also remind ourselves that the agriculture subsidies provided by OECD countries are more than six times they spend on official development assistance," the minister said.
The OECD governments support sugar producers at the rate of 6.4 billion dollars annually, an amount nearly equal to all developing countries' exports. Subsidies to cotton growers in a developed country totalled 3.7 billion dollars last year, which was three times that country's foreign aid to Africa, Jaitley said, reeling out statistics to highlight the distortions in agriculture affecting developing countries. The EU and the US had come together at the eleventh hour to provide a pro-developed framework which was sought to be smuggled into the revised ministerial draft text and this was widely opposed by several developing countries including India by giving an alternative and counter proposal.
Both EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy and United States' trade representative Robert Zoellick had said that the draft ministerial text would form the basis for the agriculture negotiations here.
But after protests from developing countries, the chairman of the conference, Mexican Foreign Minister Louis Earnesto Debrez agreed that the facilitator appointed for agriculture would also take the G-21 developing countries' proposal into consideration.
The Singapore Trade Minister has been appointed as the facilitator for agriculture, who will assist the chairman and submit a proposal by Friday after taking the views of various parties and groups.
Apart from G-21 proposal, a group of 23 developing countries led by Indonesia has submitted a proposal on new strategic products and special safeguard mechanism on agriculture. Bureau Report
In his statement to the fifth WTO ministerial yesterday, Jaitley pointed out that the protection to agriculture in developed countries was four to seven times more than that for manufactured goods. This stimulated over-production in high cost rich countries, shutting out potentially more competitive products from developing countries.
"It is no surprise that over the past few years, agricultural exports from developing countries to developed countries grew at just half the rate they did to other developing countries", he said.
"Let us also remind ourselves that the agriculture subsidies provided by OECD countries are more than six times they spend on official development assistance," the minister said.
The OECD governments support sugar producers at the rate of 6.4 billion dollars annually, an amount nearly equal to all developing countries' exports. Subsidies to cotton growers in a developed country totalled 3.7 billion dollars last year, which was three times that country's foreign aid to Africa, Jaitley said, reeling out statistics to highlight the distortions in agriculture affecting developing countries. The EU and the US had come together at the eleventh hour to provide a pro-developed framework which was sought to be smuggled into the revised ministerial draft text and this was widely opposed by several developing countries including India by giving an alternative and counter proposal.
Both EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy and United States' trade representative Robert Zoellick had said that the draft ministerial text would form the basis for the agriculture negotiations here.
But after protests from developing countries, the chairman of the conference, Mexican Foreign Minister Louis Earnesto Debrez agreed that the facilitator appointed for agriculture would also take the G-21 developing countries' proposal into consideration.
The Singapore Trade Minister has been appointed as the facilitator for agriculture, who will assist the chairman and submit a proposal by Friday after taking the views of various parties and groups.
Apart from G-21 proposal, a group of 23 developing countries led by Indonesia has submitted a proposal on new strategic products and special safeguard mechanism on agriculture. Bureau Report