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Farmers asked to reap free trade benefits

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Sept. 13

THE Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, on Wednesday assured the representatives of farmers and various political parties that the Government was committed to safeguard the interests of the domestic agriculture sector, while providing greater m arket access.

``Our primary objective during the review of the Agreement of Agriculture under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be to ensure continued food security to 100 million farmers and 75 million agricultural labourers,'' Mr. Nitish Kumar said .

At the same time, he pointed out that the domestic agriculture sector should be prepared to reap the potential spin offs that trade liberalisation offered in terms of larger exports and higher incomes for the farmers.

``Trade policies will have to be dovetailed with domestic policies to encourage higher investments in sectors where the country has a comparative advantage,'' he said. Article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture provides for negotiations on the Agreemen t one year before the end of the implementation period for the purpose of continuing the process of reforms in international trade in agricultural commodities. Accordingly, negotiations commenced in March this year in the WTO and all Member countries are to submit their proposals in this regard by December 31, 2000.

The Government has initiated wide-ranging consultations with different groups, including farmers organisations, exporters, experts to factor in their inputs not only while formulating proposals for negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture but also to take steps to make the domestic agriculture sector more competitive.

The long-term objectives of the Agreement on Agriculture are to establish a fair and market oriented agricultural trading system and to initiate the process of reforms on the support and protection given to the agriculture sector in order to prevent rest rictions and correct distortions in world agricultural markets. This Agreement incorporates three commitments on the part of Member countries in the areas of market access, domestic support and export subsidies.

Mr. Nitish Kumar maintained that India had considerable flexibility to impose higher level of tariffs within the bound level on the import of agricultural produce to deal with the adverse fall-outs arising out of the QR phase out. Recently, the Governmen t hiked import duties on a host of agricultural products including rice, wheat, edible oil, grain and sugar.

The Agriculture Minister also pointed out that India has no obligation to reduce domestic support extended to the agriculture sector since the Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) was well below the maximum level of 10 per cent of the value of the agricult ural output.

Pic.:The Agriculture Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, greeting the Congress leader, Mr Balram Jakhar (right), as National Congress Party President, Mr Sharad Pawar looks on at the meeting of the farmers' representatives, political parties and volunt ary organisations on review of WTO Agreement on Agriculture in the capital on Wednesday.

Pic. Credit:Kamal Narang