India will strongly oppose the developed countries’ demand to remove export restrictions on food

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at the eighth WTO ministerial conference being held in Geneva this week. Further, India is also not willing to give up on the issue of standstill that is strongly being advocated by Australia.

“Opening up of exports and not imposing any restrictions in future, as is being demanded by developed countries on humanitarian grounds, would be detrimental to country’s food security. Further, India is also adamant on issue of standstill as its implementation would mean a drastic reduction in duties by developing countries like India, as our applied customs duties is below bound ceiling levels,” Rajeev Kher, additional secretary in commerce ministry told Financial Chronicle.

Kher said, as there are no contentious issues in the political guidance issued by WTO general council a fortnight before the conference, India has to be cautious on issues like export restrictions and standstill as they are bound to come.

Developed countries have been insisting on unrestricted food export citing humanitarian grounds along with an assurance that no restrictions should be imposed on exports in future as well.

Developing countries, however, feel that export restrictions in the form of taxes and quotas is required in order to secure domestic supply and to address the issue of resources depletion.

Australia’s proposal on standstill meant that WTO members freeze their customs duties at existing levels. This would mean that while the developed countries’ obligations would be largely unaffected by the stand-still, as the applied levels of customs duties in these countries have remained close to the bound ceiling levels negotiated during the Uruguay Round, developing countries would be required to provide deep concessions. This is against the differential and special treatment committed by developing countries on tariff lines in Doha round.

Even the contentious issues like cotton subsidy, duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) market access for products originating in least developed countries (LDCs) are missing from the political guidance. However, it did say that cotton will be addressed “ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically”, within the agriculture negotiations.

India has always maintained that its first commitment is towards LDCs issues and without a consensus on cotton subsidies and DFQF that is being strongly opposed by US, there will be no agreement on any other issue. Of late, even countries like China and Argentina have joined India in its voice against cotton subsidies.

Eighth WTO ministerial conference will be held in Geneva during December 15-17, 2011.