1. India joined the WTO in 1995 after negotiations during the Uruguay Round from 1986-1994. The WTO aims to liberalize trade while the GATT was more flexible. 2. There are differences between the GATT and WTO regarding dispute settlement mechanisms and whether domestic legislation is permitted. The WTO also has permanent agreements while GATT was provisional. 3. A key issue for India in the WTO is defending its public stockholding and food subsidy programs for food security and supporting farmers. Developed countries have criticized these programs while India argues they are rights-based issues and not matters for the WTO. 4. After negotiations, India and the US reached an agreement in 2014

1. INDIA and WTO
Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan
MA MPHIL PHD LLB LLM MAICD Dip in MGMT and Training
Solicitor & Barrister
Supreme Court of NSW
High Court of Australia

2. Democracy and Dilemma
• Democracy
Governance
Contracting
• Dilemma
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3. GATT and WTO – differences….
• GATT - flexible
member countries can bargain, choose or avoid
- specific discipline.
• WTO – rigid
universally applied to all member countries
binding dispute settlement procedures.
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4. GATT and WTO - differences ……
• WTO - dispute settlement mechanism(power
to impose trade sanctions)
GATT - domestic legislation not permitted
• GATT - provisional legal agreement
WTO - permanent agreement
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5. GATT : objectives
1. Expansion of international trade
2. Increase of world production by
ensuring full employment in the
participating nations
3. Development and full utilisation of
world resources
4. Raising standard of living of the world
community as a whole
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6. WTO - objectives
• improve the standard of living - member
countries
• ensure full employment and increase in demand.
• enlarge production and trade of goods
• increase the trade of services
• ensure optimum utilization of world resources.
• protect the environment
• accept the concept of sustainable development
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7. WTO is directed towards
• Setting and enforcing rules for
international trade
• resolving disputes
• encouraging transparency
• further trade liberalisation, and
• help developing countries benefit fully
from the global trading system
•
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8. India’s participation
• GATT -1948
• WTO -1995
• Uruguay Round 1986-1994
• Doha Round 2001
• Bali Package 2013
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9. Bali summit and India
• India's concern : two issues
a) food subsidies
b) stockpiling of food grains.
• G–33 proposal (Nov 2012) to amend
AoA to support developing nations
• India’s National Food Security Act, 2013
(“Right to Food Act”) - reflects the G-
33 proposal
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10. Agreement on Agriculture - 1995
discipline the following :
• increase market access
• reduce domestic support
measures
• reduce subsidised exports
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11. Three Pillars
• 1) Market Access (AoA Article 4.1, 4.2, 5)
Encourages competitive relationship between imported and domestic
products; deals with rules related to import of goods.
• 2) Domestic Support (AoA Article 4.1)
Subsidies granted for the domestic production of agricultural goods.
These subsidies are granted for the benefit of products regardless of
exports.
• 3) Export Subsidies (AoA Article 8, 9.2 )
These are special incentives provided by governments on products
destined for foreign markets to encourage increased export
performance. 11

12. Domestic Support - Green box Subsidies
deals with livelihood and
environmental issues like agricultural
infrastructure and food security,
expenditure on research and
development, and disease control.
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13. Domestic Support - Blue Box Subsidies
provide direct income support to the
farmers under production limiting
programme mainly used the
European Union members and the
growth is enormous.
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14. Domestic Support - Amber Box Subsidies
deals with all domestic supports which are
not included in either green or blue boxes.
Unlike the other two, this is considered as
highly distortive of markets.
They include measures to support prices or
subsidies directly related to production
quantities.
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15. India and subsidies
• India’s agricultural subsidies are classified under “Green Box”
(Article 6.2 of AoA)
• 98.97 per cent of Indian farm holdings are low-income,
resource-poor farmers
• agreements covered by WTO have to be clarified “in
accordance with customary rules of interpretation of public
international law(Article 3.2 :WTO )
• India is placed in a position to balance food security and
WTO rules
• India demanded against “cap” & for stockpiling and
subsiding be allowed for developing countries.
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16. Export Subsidy
supports to meet the International
competition.
criticised – as they do not really promote the
domestic producer
AND
1.Subsidised exports can be countervailed by the
importing country.
2.The subsidy does not favour the small farmers.
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17. India’s stand on WTO….
• contradiction between the WTO rule and
United Nations’ Millennium Development
Goals to eradicate poverty and hunger
• in India, public stockholding is a livelihood
issue- not a matter for an external
organisation like WTO to Interfere
• human rights abuse????
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18. India’s stand on WTO ….
• The intersection of free trade and human
rights is a complex situation . This draws
the attention towards the social contract
discussed at the outset of this paper, the
foundation of the Indian democracy of
which foreign multinationals and external
bodies play no part.
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19. India’s position
• Initially India found that WTO agreements run
contrary to the Indian national interest.
• India was trying to protect a $12 billion annual
programme to feed its poor by subsidies,
contradicting WTO rules.
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20. India’s FSA criticised…
• developed countries : ‘led to mountains of stored
grains, which critics argue could be dumped on global
markets’.
• “Food security comes first and trade policies should
be customised to guarantee it”
• compromise their peoples’ right to food security will
not only compromise basic human dignity of each of
their citizens but also violate international human
rights law in the name of “free trade
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21. India’s FSA criticised …..
• Some proponents believe that Indian
marketing, transportation, and
infrastructure subsidies “distort” the
market.
• ‘ignoring the right of poor people’
• overproduction and oversupply because they
encourage greater production of a specific
commodity and less domestic consumption.
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22. Researchers say
• challenges and opportunities’ - existing in the
Indian agriculture market, suggest that ‘India
needs to adopt comprehensive [domestic]
agricultural reforms policy... The growth of
agriculture has remained laggard... To push
up this growth our agriculture sector needs
heavy investment, infrastructure
development, irrigation facility etc.
• improved training, skills, infrastructure,
transport, and work practices would increase
the productivity of Indian farmers 22

23. Finally agreed
• Following G20 meeting in Brisbane (November
2014) , India and the U.S. reached an agreement
on the food-stockpiling program, enabling India
to ratify TFA
• U.S. agreed to give India more freedom to subsidise and
stockpile food to feed its people and support its farmers
• ‘Corporate Greed Trumps Needs of World's Poor and
Hungry.’ criticised
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24. Thank you
Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan
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