NEW DELHI/GENEVA: India defied the world yesterday in a row over food stockpiling that has crippled attempts to reach a global trade agreement.
At the end of July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled the plug on implementing a so-called trade-facilitation deal struck in Bali last year, linking it to the issue of rural poverty in his country.
India wants to keep a so-called ‘peace clause’ that protects its huge state food purchases until the World Trade Organisation can strike a definitive deal on stockpiling. As originally envisaged in Bali, the clause would expire in four years.
“India’s position on trade facilitation has been completely misunderstood because of unreasonable positioning by some of the developed countries,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a WEF conference in New Delhi.
Jaitley repudiated suggestions that India was fundamentally opposed to trade facilitation, which would entail easing port and customs procedures and, by some estimates, add $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the global economy.
“All that we are requesting is the settlement of the dispute with regard to the food stock holdings, and the peace clause must continue to co-exist,” Jaitley said.
REUTERS
