India’s stand might derail WTO worries US

Geneva: The US Administration is upset that India’s firm stand could block a worldwide reform of custom rules, it estimates could add $1 trillion to the global economy and create 21 million jobs.

India, in an 11th-hour intervention, said it would only back the accord if its concerns over food security were met. A permanent WTO deal on food stockpiling must be in place by the end of 2014, not by 2017 as previously agreed.

Diplomats from the 160 World Trade Organisation member countries meeting in Geneva had been meant to rubber stamp a deal on “trade facilitation” that was agreed at talks in Bali last December in WTO’s first ever global trade agreement.

“India is of the view that the Trade Facilitation Agreement must be implemented only as part of a single undertaking including the permanent solution on food security,” said Indian Ambassador Anjali Prasad at the WTO meeting.

“My delegation is of the view that the adoption of the TF (trade facilitation) Protocol be postponed till a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security is found.”

The ultimatum revived doubts about the future of the WTO as a negotiating body, and the U.S. ambassador to the organisation, Michael Punke, said that Delhi’s stance could derail the whole process of world trade liberalisation.

If the Bali agreement fails, there can be no ‘post-Bali’, he said, referring to the next stage of world trade reform planned in Geneva. But it was not too late to meet the July 31 deadline.

India’s opposition attracted support from Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, who told the WTO meeting on Friday they were disappointed that only the rich countries had got what they wanted from the Bali conference.

But dozens of other members, including developing countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Thailand, urged them to drop their opposition and back the trade facilitation deal, as they had all agreed to do in Bali.

A failure to overcome India’s objections by early next week could overshadow a planned visit to New Delhi by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, which begins on July 30.