Heartened by the major breakthrough between India and US over the food stock piling issue, G20 leaders, in their meeting on Sunday, expressed hope that that this development would put WTO negotiations back on track and would facilitate the implementation of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), necessary for driving growth and generating jobs.
In a development paving the way for ending a three-month long stalemate on Trade Facilitation Agreement at the multi-lateral trade body, the country, in the previous week, achieved a major breakthrough with the US agreeing to its proposal on food security issues at WTO. The TFA had been stalled since July, when India refused to endorse it, unless its food stockpiles were exempted from possible punitive measures, prompting the US to accuse it of taking the WTO to the brink of crisis.
As per the agreement with India, the US will support India's proposal at WTO that 'peace clause', crucial for uninterrupted implementation of India's food security programme, should continue indefinitely until a permanent solution on the issue is found. This agreement would enable the country in continuing procuring and stocking of food grain for distribution to poor under its food security programme, without attracting any kind of action from WTO members in the scenario if it breaches the 10% subsidy cap as prescribed by the multilateral trade body.
Separately, G20 leaders also endorsed India’s concerns over black money and promised for a new global transparency standard that would modernize international tax rules and allow automatic exchange of related information between governments to curb illicit outflow of money estimated at over $1 trillion annually.
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