In the context of pandemic induced poverty, the 12th Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organisation must deliver a permanent solution on public stockholding for ensuring food security. Discuss (200 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· The work for the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC 12) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be held in Geneva.
· The fisheries-subsidies negotiations have been underway for the past 20 years, and their conclusion is important to secure livelihoods of millions of people engaged therein.
· The Appellate Body of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO has been lying dysfunctional due to non-appointment of new members.
· One of the mandated issues in agriculture negotiations at the WTO is to work towards a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes.
· While the Peace Clause, as negotiated at the Bali Ministerial Conference (2013), provides some flexibility from such restrictions, it requires fulfilment of burdensome transparency and notification conditionalities.
· For India, when the entire country went into lockdown, public food stocks played a pivotal role in ensuring continued supply of food grains to the country’s poor.
· The government could enhance supply of subsidised wheat and rice to the poor only because of the robust public stockholding mechanism it had.
· It is ironical that some WTO members are not realising the critical role public stocks play under circumstances like the ongoing pandemic hen every economic activity including the supply chains are severely affected.
