WTO pact will hit farmers: Expert

Chennai: The resolutions proposed at the World Trade Organ­i­s­ation’s trade facilitation treaty in 2013 at Bali in In­donesia would hit Indian farmers’ livelihoods, said Devinder Sharma, ren­owned food and trade policy analyst.

Devinder urged the st­ate government should op­pose the proposed tready in WTO talks in Bali. Addr­es­s­ing a press gathering on Saturday, Sharma said India had failed to play the ‘leader’ of the developing and least developed countries by opposing the developed nations’ linking of ag­riculture to trade.

The resolutions insisted that the subsidies given to farmers in India must be reduced. “While inflation is high in the country they want us to keep our minimum support price for paddy at Rs 600 per quintal against Rs 1,310 per quintal, which is not justified,” Sharma added.

“The US spends $100 billion for 47 million poor people in the country and is objecting to our expenditure of $20 billion on the Food Security Act which will support 830 million poor in India,” said Dr Suresh, Supreme Court-appointed adviser to Tamil Nadu on Food Security.

“The state government should take cognisance of this and oppose the UPA government’s Bali pact and ask for its reneging when the WTO pact comes up for final approval in Geneva in July 2014,” he added.

“Most of what was achie­ved in the Bali talks points to the fact that agriculture will be made expensive in India, and hence the West can dump their produce on us which will be far cheaper than the Indian one because the West has safeguarded their farm subsidies and direct incomes to farmers,” Sharma said. Devinder Sharma also pointed out that the WTO pacts could shut ration shops down, disabling agriculture in India.