Brussels, 13/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 13 November, the US and India announced that they had resolved their WTO dispute on public stockholding for food security purposes. This was blocking implementation of the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) that was concluded at the WTO ministerial conference in Bali at the end of 2013.
The two parties agreed that the Indian food security programmes will not be challenged by the WTO until a “permanent solution” to this issue “has been agreed and adopted”, says the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) in a press release.
India has been blocking the implementation of the TFA for several months, for which the memorandum of understanding should have been adopted at the end of July. The country linked this agreement to the adoption of permanent derogations for its policy on public stockholding for food security purposes. New Delhi wants a permanent solution for the peace clause, which enables developing countries to stock food above the limits set by the WTO for domestic support, without these measures being contested at the WTO. In Bali, the previous Indian government obtained a moratorium until 2017.
The head of the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, commended this US-India agreement immediately. “Implementation of all aspects of the Bali package would be a major boost to the WTO”, he said.
European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström hailed “an important breakthrough which will lead to the full implementation of the Bali package” and which “will allow the WTO to resume work (…) on the preparation of a work-programme for the Doha Development Agenda, thereby setting us on a path towards the conclusion of the Doha round”. (EH)