A pound of flesh to feed the poor

The Doha Development Round at WTO(World Trade Organisation) has been on the table since a decade, with no forthcoming results. The West demands developing countries like India, Brazil and China to remove the import barriers and allow more access to their markets; whereas developing countries demand the West including US and EU to remove the large subsidies they provide to their rich farmers. But neither bargain has been fruitful. Now, is the time when US can win on both sides because UPA is ready to bargain on any terms to have its Food Security Act get working before the upcoming elections.

Mr. Jayant Dasgupta, India's permanent representative to the WTO in Geneva, states that this bargain has nothing in it for the developing countries. Still, to ensure that their election campaigns go wild by the Food Security Act and India commits under the WTO AoA(Agreement on Agriculture), UPA is definitely laid down. This has many concerns coming up, of which the primary would be that the deal is unequal on the balance, and another important factor would be that it will affect the diplomatic relations with other developing countries having the same demands.

WTO has a limit set on the amount of support countries can provide  for an agricultural product under AMS(Aggregate Measurement of Support). But the AMS rule is obsolete as the 'external reference price', an important factor in deciding the amount of support, is based on 1986-88 levels when the world food prices were low. Any alternative solution can be found only when these prices are updated to the current global prices. Also, UPA has to look far beyond the elections, towards what's good for the nation.