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![WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo speaking at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Ministerial Meeting in Beijing on 8 November 2014 [WTO]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dgrabeijin81114.jpg)
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo speaking at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Ministerial Meeting in Beijing on 8 November 2014 [WTO]
“India and the United States have resolved their differences on public stockholding of food. This opens the way for implementation of the WTO trade facilitation deal,” Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday in New Delhi.
India was bracing for censure at the G20 Leaders Summit this weekend, to be attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as most WTO member voiced shock and frustration after India’s demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling led to the collapse of the first major global trade reform pact in two decades.
The Indian Minister said in New Delhi on Thursday that Indian and US officials have reached an agreement on public stockpiling of food, the absence of which had been cited by India as the reason for not ratifying the deal earlier.
Indian was earlier insisting on a permanent agreement on its subsidised food stockpiling at the same time as the trade facilitation deal, well ahead of a 2017 target set last December in Bali.
However, India’s blocking a deal on “trade facilitation” earlier this year was seen as anti-thetical to the pro-business Modi-government.
Some estimates say the WTO trade deal would add $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the world economy.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is traveling to Brisbane, Australia where he will attend the G20 Summit and a BRICS leaders meet on the sidelines. India’s BRICS partners Russia, China and Brazil had also acceded to the WTO trade deal in July.
TBP and Agencies
