G33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting and India

There are 47 G33 members. 21 member countries out of the 47, including India, participated in the Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting. 

The delegation of India is headed by Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry. He emphasised the importance of the positive outcomes in providing permanent solutions to the problem of Public Stockholding for food security purposes. 

The Ministerial Conference 12 of the G33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting holds a trust-building exercise. WTO mandated some issues in agriculture that were addressed by the G33 members. It also addressed the development issues of the developing countries and discussed International Trade Negotiations. 

G33 Forum 

G33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting was held in 2021 on 16th September. The intervention discussed the agricultural issues of G33 members. 

It’s a forum that is a part of developing countries’ including South Africa, Brazil, and India among other G33 Countries. The G33 member’s forum was designed to protect the interests of the developing countries trade negotiations related to agriculture. 

It was formed by the Cancun Ministerial Conference of the WTO. It helps a group of countries facing similar problems. The intervention also discussed the way forward for the 12th Ministerial Conference. This Conference was scheduled for four days. It was conducted from 30th November to 3rd December in 2021. 

The keynote remarks of the Informal Ministerial Meeting were delivered by the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo. 

India’s Intervention

The official delegation of India at the G33 intervention was headed by Shri Piyush Goyal. He is the Minister of Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution, Textiles, and Commerce & Industry. 

He emphasised the balanced outcome for domestic support and the final agreement on the decision of following a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). 

He brought to light the issues found in the Agreement on Agriculture signed by the WTO. The agreement is full of imbalances favouring the developed countries. 

This has proven to be unfair for the developing countries and Shri Piyush Goyal highlighted these issues in the intervention. 

As a part of the agricultural reform, these imbalances must be corrected to ensure a fair and equitable practices of activities. 

India became the signatory of the revised proposal made to the WTO. The G33 proposal highlighted the issue of Public Stockholding. 

About G33 

The G33 intervention is the coalition formed by the developing countries. This intervention was formed before the Cancun Ministerial Conference held in 2003. 

The Cancun Ministerial Conference coordinated the issues of agriculture in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation. The intervention is dominated by India amongst other G33 members. 

The G33 interventions hold defencive discussions based on the agricultural negotiations made by the World Trade Organisation. 

Its focus is to limit the market opening done for developing countries. 

12th WTO Ministerial Conference

The twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference took place from 30th November to 3rd December in 2021. It was held in Geneva, Switzerland. 

It was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Conference was originally supposed to be held in June 2020. From 8th June to 12th June in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan. 

WTO members approved the chairman of the 12th Ministerial Conference in December 2019. Bakhyt Sultanov, the Minister of Trade Integration of Kazakhstan chaired the meeting. 

The Conference is attended by trade 

ministers and senior officials. It is the highest official body of the World Trade Organisation. Of the WTO’s 164 members, the trade ministers and senior officials hold the decision-making power. 

Special Products Exemption

The G33 members advocated the exemption of special products as a part of the agricultural negotiations made by the WTO. 

This exemption would protect the developing countries by allowing them to exempt a certain number of products from tariff reductions. 

It also suggested a Special Safeguard Mechanism be put into force that would permit the increase of tariffs in response to the surges in imports. 

Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry of India urged the G33 members to form a coalition to strengthen their cohesion. He Influenced them to reach out to other like-minded groups that will help them support fair and balanced agricultural practices centred around development. 

Proposals Made By India 

The seven members of the G33 hold 96% of the global entitlement of the trade farm subsidies. These trade-distorting subsidies are called Final Bound Total Aggregate Measurement of Support in trade parlance). 

The seven-member countries holding 96% entitlement are Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Russia, the US, Japan, and the European Union. The G33 members have less than a 4% share. 

The developed country members of the G33 have less number of farmers but increased flexibility in providing trade-distorting support to them. Whereas other developing country members of the G33 having a large number of farmers do not have the right policies in their support to extend it to their farmers. 

Conclusion

21 member countries, including India of the G33, made a brief intervention to defend against the agricultural negotiations made by the World Trade Organisation. The meeting addressed the issue of special and differential treatment of the developed countries in the international trade negotiations. The G33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting was hosted by Indonesia.