World News | To Rebuild Trust, Credibility, We Must First Address Mandated Issues: Goyal to WTO
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. India on Sunday said that to rebuild trust and credibility of the WTO, member countries must first address mandated issues, like the permanent solution to public stockholding, which was agreed nearly a decade ago.
Geneva, Jun 12 (PTI) India on Sunday said that to rebuild trust and credibility of the WTO, member countries must first address mandated issues, like the permanent solution to public stockholding, which was agreed nearly a decade ago.
"The current global food crisis is a reminder to us that we act now! Can we risk the lives of millions of people dependent on food stocks maintained for the poor and vulnerable?" asked commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal here.
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He said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inability of the world to promptly respond to any crisis, whether on food security or health, economic wellbeing or open supply chains.
"To rebuild trust and credibility, we must first address mandated issues, like the permanent solution to public stockholding agreed nearly a decade ago," he added.
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Meanwhile, a source said that there is a discussion in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) on issuing a declaration that says countries will not impose export restrictions on the procurements made by WFP (World Food Programme).
About 81 countries have sponsored this declaration.
In all official documents of WFP, it has stated that it has problems with funding; it has never mentioned it has an issue with export restrictions.
"Since most of the procurements and delivery of WFP are in the developing countries, the unconnected countries calling for a decision on export restrictions is very strange," the source said.
India is not in favour of giving binding commitment under the WTO on supply of food grains to the UN's World Food Programme as it would restrict its policy space to deal with domestic food security concerns.
India has been a high contributor to the WFP. In 2015 it was the highest contributor.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)