Cabinet approves India's stand on food security at WTO

New Delhi: The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared ex-post facto the stand taken by India on food security at the last meeting of the World Trade Organisation held in Nairobi.

"Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval for the approach adopted by India at Nairobi WTO meeting. The outcomes of the Conference, referred to 'Nairobi Package' include ministerial Decisions on agriculture, cotton," an official statement said today.

"These cover a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries & public stock holding for food security," it said.

The Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference concluded in Nairobi in December.

India wants a permanent solution on the issue of public stock holding for its food security programme.

It 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 is related to several developing nations which provide subsidised foodgrains to the poor.