| Date: |
24-12-2015 |
| Subject: |
India Got WTO commitment on special safeguard mechanism: Nirmala Sitharaman |
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NEW DELHI: Rejecting critics' claims on outcome of the Nairobi ministerial of the World Trade Organisation, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said India did not come back empty-handed or do anything detrimental to its interests.
She said India was able to hold on to the perpetual peace clause for public stock holding in food security till a permanent solution is found and even got a commitment on a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for the domestic industry in event of a surge in imports— something that was not even on the WTO's agenda. "Baahar jaake desh ka nuksaan nahi kiya, jo laabhdaayak tha, wo kar ke aayi hun (I didn't put the country's interest at stake abroad, I did what was beneficial)...We haven't come back empty-handed. We have all the Hong Kong and Bali ministerials promised," Sitharaman said in a statement in the Rajya Sabha.
She said that the recourse to SSM that it got in the recently concluded Nairobi ministerial of the WTO is its right and not a bargaining chip.
In the Nairobi package, India has got an assurance on negotiations for an SSM but no actual mechanism or triggers for the developing countries to able to invoke it, as was the case in 2008 during the Hong Kong ministerial.
"See every time it's not a bargaining chip with which you are going. SSM is a right. On SSM, we have made sure that what was given as a right in the Hong Kong ministerial declaration is what we are underlining. So, when every attempt was being made to link SSM with market access and denied, we are saying just get back to the Hong Kong ministerial," Sitharaman said while addressing the media for the first time after the Nairobi ministerial.
SSM is a measure used to protect farmers from sudden surges in imports or tariff cuts and are invoked based on import quantity and price triggers. Developed countries already have access to a similar mechanism called special safeguards or SSGs.
On export subsidies, the minister said that India will have to do away with its transport and marketing subsidies by 2023 and that makes on a par with developed countries as they have to eliminate their subsidies immediately.
Switzerland, Canada and Norway have received carve outs or exceptions for their export of dairy products, swine meat and processed food and withdraw the sops by 2022.
However, she did express her disappointment on the WTO not having reaffirmed the Doha Development Agenda, which was India's key demand.
She also added that there were no divisions in the G-33 group as far as reaffirming Doha is concerned. "Nothing was imposed. G-33's chair was Indonesia and Indonesia as a separate entity said it surrendered its interests to chair. But as chair of G-33, he voiced the view of G-33 to reaffirm Doha round. So LDCs, Arab group, China and G-33 are all on the same page as India," she said.
On being asked by former commerce minister in the UPA regime Anand Sharma on why India didn't red flag the Nairobi declaration when Doha was not reaffirmed, she said: "We did give a statement on this...and the larger coalition has not deserted us."
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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