India facing difficulties with WTO on exporting cereals amidst global food crisis: Sitharaman

India facing difficulties with WTO on exporting cereals amidst global food crisis: Sitharaman

WASHINGTON: Amidst a global shortage of food grains in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war, countries like India which have the potential to address this by exporting agricultural products, in particular cereals, are facing difficulties from the World Trade Organization, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday.
Responding to India’s concerns, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during the just-concluded annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank said that the organisation is looking at it very positively and hopefully it would be sorted, the minister told a group of Indian reporters here.
The United States has requested India to help out with the food grain situation right now, India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu noted during a news conference with the minister.
“I was very positively inspired by the fact that in the plenary. Response from the WTO was very positive. I hope we’ll break that decade-long restriction that has held us back from using our agricultural products after taking care of the buffer we need for food security purposes. So that the farmers also can get a better return,” Sitharaman said in response to a question.
She said India has identified opportunities for the export of food grains and also manufacturing in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis.
“The opportunities that we have identified and have progressed in it. our export of food grains, particularly wheat. We are probably now tapping also for our manufacturing goods to move to destinations which are now suddenly found as their suppliers are in a situation they can’t continue with uninterrupted supply,” she said.
The war has revealed some realities to the world, she added. “In some of the interactions that I’ve had, in one of the sessions (that) impacted the plenary itself, I had voiced that countries like India which have the potential for exporting agricultural produce, particularly cereals, have faced difficulties with the WTO,” she said.
“Because of that, where the entire plenary was recognising that there’s hunger and shortage of food grains all over the world, countries like India, which can probably supply are facing difficulties with WTO. In the plenary, DG WTO was also present, she was gracious enough to say addressing me that (they) will address this issue, but we are looking at it positively and will hopefully be sorted,” she said. —PTI

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