India is staring at the WTO investigation over stacks of long pending queries about farm trade

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. The WTO report grouped India with other developing economies such as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan and Côte d’Ivoire, which has a long hanging answers to members’ questions. (AFP) Summary A WTO report highlights India’s backlog of unanswered inquiries about fating, with 186 pending since 2013. While India defends its subsidy programs as essential for food security, developed countries consider the delays as a transparency issue that could harm global confidence. New Delhi: India under the investigation into the World Trade Organization (WTO) examined the failure to respond to farm-related questions that have accumulated more than a decade. The latest secretariat report shows that the country has the longest list of pending inquiries at the WTO, with a significant number dating from 2013. The updated WTO note, issued on September 8, listed 186 unanswered questions from 2013 to 2023, along with another 51 of 2024, of which India has 30 September. By comparison, China has 20 pending inquiries, Pakistan Five and Bangladesh Two, the report states. Most of the questions were raised by the US with 157, followed by Canada with 61, Australia with 40 and Japan with 13, the WTO newspaper said. Many of the inquiries directed to India have its minimum purchase of the minimum support price (MSP), public shares for food security, sugar export subsidies, cotton support programs and overdue notices under the WTO agreement on agriculture. Trading partners, including the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Paraguay and the European Union (EU), have repeatedly sought explanations, but timely answers did not come in, according to the WTO report reviewed by Mint. While India claims that its subsidy and procurement programs are of the utmost importance to ensure food security and protect small farmers, members of developed economies see the delayed reactions as a challenge for transparency and a potential confidence in the multilateral trading system. On the issue of unanswered inquiries, a senior government official said: “India’s subsidy and public share programs are designed to ensure food security and protect the livelihoods of our small and marginal farmers.” “These measures fully comply with our WTO obligations, and we remain committed to using transparency while protecting the interests of our agricultural community,” said the government official, who requested anonymity. India manages one of the world’s largest food security systems under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and the wider National Food Security Act (NFSA) framework, which offers subsidized grains to more than 800 million people through its public distribution system. Farmers also receive support from the government’s minimum support prize programs (MSP), input subsidies and fertilizer and electricity subsidies. In FY25, the government has spent more than £ 1.5 billion on food and farm-related subsidies to ensure affordability for consumers and income support for farmers. The WTO report grouped India with other developing economies such as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan and Côte d’Ivoire, which has a long hanging answers to members’ questions. India has also actively printed other countries for clarity on their policy: questioning the US and EU on farming subsidies, Canada and Australia challenge access to sugars and seek explanations from Brazil on sugar support, according to the WTO paper. New -Delhi argues that richer countries continue to operate opaque domestic support programs that distort global businesses much more than schemes in developing economies. According to analysts, India will be unlikely to change its food security attitude, but it may need to become more proactively involved to prevent them from being in the corner. “It’s less about policy change and more about managing perceptions,” says Dr. Amit Singh, associate professor at the Special Center for National Security Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. “If India continues with Stonewall, the US and EU will use it to get others against it and create a credibility gap in Geneva.” The development comes amid rising global tensions over losing, with countries increasingly accusing of subsidy regimes that are not pervasive. For India, timely disclosure can help balance its food security arguments with the need to ensure that trading partners remain within the WTO limits, while also protecting his position in the upcoming negotiations. According to experts, the issue may have greater prominence when agricultural negotiations resume in Geneva later this year. Rajesh Sharma, an agricultural expert, has now noticed sharper. “India’s position on public shareholders has a greater support among developing countries, but if you do not meet the basic transparency requirements, its position undermines.” Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #World Trade #trade #Conomy #News #India Read Next Story