India to push for pro-poor agenda at high-level WTO meeting on Sunday

India has rallied developing and underdeveloped nations to back its opposition to the new WTO drafts on agriculture, fishing and vaccine which favours the developed nations.

An aggressive India with a theme built around equitability, humanitarianism and India-first, will enter the crucial 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that starts on Sunday.

India’s successful mobilisation of 80-odd member nations on agendas like food security, subsidy on fisheries, suspension of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on vaccines to improve access for poor nations and WTO reforms will challenge the push by the developed world to gain favourable deliverables from the crucial meet which is going to be held after it's earlier two avatars were called off.

India, ahead of the meeting, has declared a disagreement with three key draft plans on fishing, agriculture and vaccine IPR mooted for deliberations.

Firstly, the push by developed nations has laid down that no subsidy for fishing would be stopped. India is set to emphasise that “no discipline will be accepted in territorial waters.” A large number of developing and underdeveloped nations are backing India.

Secondly, India, on the draft plan for agriculture, will continue protecting its food security programme meant for the poor and assistance provided to farmers in the form of subsidies. India has the backing of 82 of the 125 member nations on the issue, and the push would be for “recognising common but differentiated responses.”

Thirdly, with regards to the draft plan for Covid vaccines, India will reiterate that due to the pandemic, patent rules need to be eased for wider manufacturing of vaccines to help poor nations tackle the pandemic.

Replying to a query about the new draft plans, the Indian ambassador to the WTO, Gajendra Navneet said, “WTO is driven by members, not the chairs or drafts. It has to look at what 80 countries representing two-thirds of the world's population are saying.”