Bali delivers a \\\'balanced\\\' package

After months of intense negotiations in Geneva culminating with a ministerial conference, trade ministers finally delivered the Bali Package. As Indian trade minister, Anand Sharma, said: "A historic day for the WTO. India's food security concerns are addressed". Despite intense political pressure including desertion of some like-minded countries, India stood its ground in a constructive manner and helped the global trade community to deliver a 'balanced' package incorporating a number of trade-related development dimensions.  
It was a deal limited to three specific issues of the Doha Development Agenda, which is being negotiated since 2001. The Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia was extended by a day to sort out some last-minute hurdles on some specific issues related to trade facilitation.
The last hurdle was a concern raised by a group of South American countries over the application of non-discrimination principles on trade facilitation. After convening another round of Heads of Delegations meeting on  December 07 morning, trade ministers reached a consensus and the Bali Ministerial Declaration added a sentence reaffirming the application of non-discrimination principles in dealing with trade facilitation measures.
LONG ROAD TO BALI: At the last ministerial conference, held in Geneva in December 2011, trade ministers decided that as the full package of the Doha Development Agenda was not making much progress, it would be wise to concentrate on a limited number of issues on which an agreement can be reached. As the fundamentals of the global economy in general and international trade in particular are changing rapidly since the Doha Round was launched more than a decade ago, there were too many pushes and pulls in different directions.
Earlier this year, it became clear that the limited Bali Package will consist of three areas: a) some aspects of agriculture negotiations such as public stockholding for food security purposes, further liberalisation in the administration of tariff rate quotas; b) trade facilitation; and c) a number of issues important for trade-related development and further integration of least developed countries into the global trading system.
Much of the ground work for this successful outcome in Bali was laid in Geneva, led by the immediate past WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. And the new Director-General Roberto Azevedo pushed the cause intensively after he took over in September this year. With political support from capitals, trade ambassadors in Geneva played a very constructive role as everybody wants to see themselves as part of the solutions. In September this year, the new US Trade Representative Michael Froman was particularly forthwith in stating that for multilateralism to move and benefit the poor, the Bali Package had to be delivered.
From the very beginning, India played a very constructive role in articulating its demands vis-à-vis the Bali Package. Without making any political compromise to its food security concerns and with a commitment to reduce the cost of doing cross-border trade, India articulated its demands clearly and constructively that it wanted a balanced Bali deal. Its objective was not only about balancing its concerns for poor producers and consumers of staple foods but also to achieve an overall balance in all areas of the Bali Package including taking into account the concerns of other poor countries.  
PEACE CLAUSE FOR FOOD SECURITY: Given the amount of subsidies that India provides to its producers of staple foods through minimum support price programme and that such a subsidy is needed to implement a substantially universal food security programme to benefit Indian consumers, the country was at the risk of breaching its WTO-compatible limit of domestic subsidies to agriculture.
This is primarily because the base price for calculating such subsidies was pegged at the triennium average international price of such products during the period 1986-88. Since then both average international price and India's minimum support price have increased substantially. So was the case of many other developing countries.
Therefore and based on a consensus among a group of like-minded developing countries, India made a demand for arriving at a permanent solution to this problem. The Bali Ministerial Decision on 'Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes' firmly established the need for and modalities of arriving at that 'permanent solution' within a period of four years.
"In the interim, until a permanent solution is found, and provided that the conditions set out below are met, Members shall refrain from challenging through the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism …" - the much talked-about 'peace clause' for domestic food security purposes. This Ministerial Decision also affirms to "ensure that stocks procured under such programmes do not distort trade or adversely affect the food security of other Members" and "not be used in a manner that results in an increase of the support subject to the Member's Bound Total AMS or the de minimis limits provided under programmes other than those notified".
WHAT NEXT? Now, it is up to Indian trade negotiators to take active steps to arrive at a 'permanent solution'. The best approach would be changes in the formula of calculating such subsidies for food security purposes. Indian negotiators will have to careful in making this demand as that should not open the door for recalculation of other kinds and purposes of subsidies to agriculture.
Not only that India will have to take lead in arriving at this 'permanent solution' but also it has to play a constructive role in ensuring 'delivery on development' of the Bali Package as a whole. It has to implement its commitments on trade facilitation including articulation of implementation concerns and help other poor countries, particularly its neighbours, to do so as the delivery on 'trade facilitation' has to be like that of a regional public good. Furthermore, India has a responsibility of helping the least developed countries to get more and better benefits out of the implementation of the 'Bali LDC Package', particularly on monitoring and implementation aspects of special and differential treatment provisions for LDCs.
As a good and responsible international citizen, India has never played spoilsport in international negotiations. It has always articulated its concerns and demands in a constructive manner. Bali has proved that, once again. And, India will do so in future in articulating and help delivering other issues of the Doha Development Agenda, in a homeopathic style.
Pradeep S Mehta is the Secretary General of CUTS International, has been a member of the WTO's High Level Panel on the Future of Trade in the 21st Century and was at Bali for the ministerial conference as a delegate from Zambia. The co-author, Bipul Chatterjee, leads CUTS work on trade policy issues.
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