Much of the stridency with which Mr Sharma, with the full backing of the prime Minister at home, argued his case had more to do with a major plank of the Congress Party’s poll strategy - providing cheaper foodgrains to the bulk of population.

While Mr Sharma took up the cudgels for subsistence farmers in all poor countries, his exceptional vehemence on this occasion was understandable for most of the participating 159 Trade Ministers, though not many stood up to back him with fervor. It was also of some worry for the sympathetic Indonesian host chairing the conference, Minister Gita Wirjawanz, lest Mr Sharma’s “non-negotiable” stance should wreck the entire “Bali Package” which included Trade Facilitation and the ldelayed deal on tariff-and-quota-free entry of goods of least developed countries (LDCs)

The new Director-General of WTO Roberto Azevedo (Brazil) had worked hard over the two last months with the Trade Negotiations Committee to ensure a successful outcome at Bali, which would help to restore WTO’s role as the principal global forum for negotiating and implementing trade rules and settling disputes..

The original drafts on the three major issues including agriculture had, by and large, found broad support, except for India. Mr Sharma’s stinging attacks on the lack of binding commitments by developed countries, his reservations on some points in Trade Facilitation and his rejection of the “half-baked” agricultural package injected a crisis atmosphere at Bali.

It set off a hectic round of consultations and the Director-General presented revised drafts to the Ministers and these underwent further revisions after discussions he held with some of the key participants including the US Trade Representative Mr Froman besides Conference Chairman Mr Gita Wirajawanz. Mr Sharma’ had also meetings with them.

Finally, what became acceptable to the Commerce Minister and to be hailed as a major victory, not just for India but for WTO and global community, was an amended para which permits developing countries in particular, to continue to provide for public stock-holding and subsidy elements as an interim mechanism “until a permanent solution is found”. This was in place of earlier formulation with a time-limit of four years.

However, this should not be taken as absolving India for ever. The Ministerial declaration says WTO members “agree to put in place an interim mechanism as set out below, and to negotiate on an agreement for a permanent solution for the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes for adoption by the 11th Ministerial Conference”.This can happen over the next five or six years.

In the interim, no country can challenge through the dispute settlement mechanism the compliance of a developing member with its obligations under the relevant articles of the present Agreement on Agriculture (1995) in regard to support provided for staple crops for public stockholding programmes for food security. Even at current levels of 10 per cent of the value of agricultural output, India exceeds the WTO norms.

At the same time, such countries are required to notify the Committee on Agriculture (created under the Doha Round negotiations) that it is exceeding or at risk of exceeding the prescribed levels of support as a result of their stock-holding programmes. They should also ensure that the stocks procured under these programmes do not distort international trade or adversely affect the food security of other member-countries.

With all these limitations, Mr Anand Sharma is confident that the Bali agreement has set the tone for a more durable fair and balancedsolution which can be negotiated in the future as the Doha Round gets going. Unlike India, other countries of BRICS like Brazil and China did not join issue with their interests being focused more on trade facilitation. South Africa was the only country to support India’s stand.

Even though the food security issue proved too contentious and dominated the Bali Conference, what really mattered for all countries was the Declaration on Trade Facilitation which calls for easing of customs and other regulations for exports and imports and speedy clearance of goods. Adoption of this has been welcomed by all exporting nations and more so by business groups and chambers of commerce all over the world. The International Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the trade facilitation accord would add one trillion dollars to the world economy.

No less important was the setting in motion at Bali of the agreement on special and differential treatment for less developed countries (LDCs) through tariff and quota free market access for their goods. India has offered to expand the coverage of duty free quota free market access for lDCs to 96.2 per cent of Indian tariff lines. The LDC concessions were first agreed upon at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference (2005).

The Bali Ministerial Declaration has produced the first Trade Accord of WTO of the century, within the first three months of Mr Roberto Azevedo taking over as Director-General. “For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered”, he was able to say with emotional pride on December 7,at the end of a tense week of tiding over a crisis over the draft text on agriculture.

The successful outcome at Bali marks a major step forward in advancing the Doha Round negotiations and completing the development agenda,to which the Ministers committed themselves. The Declaration also reaffirmed their commitment to WTO as the pre-eminent global forum for trade including negotiating and implementing trade rules, settling disputes and supporting development through integration of developing countries into the global trading system. (IPA Service)