WTO meet: India rejects elements of draft on fisheries subsidies, food subsidy declaration 

India has been in full form ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meet began on Sunday. India rejected elements of the draft on fisheries subsidies and the food subsidy declaration.

The draft agreement claims that it presents a clean solution from the negotiating process and also provides clarity on provisions for subsidies given to vessels. The draft attempts to ensure members should not be negotiating against each other but against the unrelenting depletion of global fish stocks vital for livelihoods, food security and healthy planet.

While rejecting the provisions in the fisheries subsidies draft, India’s ambassador to the WTO Gajendra Navneet said, “This is a problem created by others. And countries like India are being asked to take responsibility for their mess. India wants safety net for fishermen in countries like India who aren’t into distant water fishing.”

He also lambasted the European Union (EU) and said that EU fishing vessels catch fish from far-off Africa but the “EU lectures poor countries that traditional fishing vessels used by small fishermen deplete the global stock.”

Navneet furthermore underscored that the negotiations on fisheries subsidies are aimed at broad and practical disciplines on marine wild capture fishing and fishing-related activities by prohibiting subsidies on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; overfished stocks, and overfishing and overcapacity.

Countries seeking fisheries subsidies are the EU, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Iceland and Norway among others. India, Indonesia and the ACP group want flexibility under special and differential treatment.

On the food subsidy declaration front, Navneet said that India has been a major contributor to the World Food Programme initiatives over the years. He added, “India feels that the Food security declaration, other than tokenism., serves no other purpose. We need WTO’s yes to export of food grains from our public stocks for international aid.”

He added, “The country’s position on the public food stockpile issue is linked to the survival of 800 million hungry people worldwide.”

A Kenyan official chimed in on the matter and told India Today, “There are big players who, on the issue of food security, have taken a stand that will keep the markets open especially elimination/restraint on Export Restrictions, including World Food Programme (WFP) procurements, rather than exploring solutions to augment food supplies.”

(With inputs from Rahul Shrivastava)