New Delhi: India has come under scrutiny at the World Trade Organization (WTO) after it failed to respond to farm trade-related queries that have accumulated over more than a decade, and now has the longest list of pending queries at WTO among all countries

According to a report by Mint, the latest secretariat report shows that a sizeable number of these queries date back to 2013.

“The updated WTO note, issued on 8 September, listed 186 unanswered questions from 2013 to 2023, along with 51 from 2024, of which India has 30 pending as of 5 September,” Mint reported.

This is significant when compared to other countries, such as China, which has 20 pending queries, Pakistan which has five and Bangladesh two, as per the WTO paper. 

According to the paper, most of the questions had been raised by the US with 157, followed by Canada with 61, Australia with 40, and Japan with 13.

Mint reported that many of the queries directed at India were regarding its minimum support price (MSP) procurement, public stockholding for food security, sugar export sops, cotton support programmes and overdue notifications under the WTO Agreement on agriculture. 

Trading partners have repeatedly sought clarifications, but replies have not come in yet. "While India maintains that its subsidy and procurement programmes are crucial for ensuring food security and protecting small farmers, members from the developed economies view its delayed responses as a challenge to transparency and a potential dent in confidence in the multilateral trading system," according to the report.

A government official told Mint that the measures taken by India “are fully compliant with our WTO commitments, and we remain committed to transparency while safeguarding the interests of our agricultural community," said the government

New Delhi has also argued that richer countries continue to operate opaque domestic support programmes, distorting global farm trade far more than schemes in the developing economies. According to the WTO paper, as cited by Mint, India has also actively pressed other countries, such as the US and European Union, seeking clarity on their policies on farm subsidies; Canada and Australia on dairy market access; and explanations from Brazil on sugar support.

India has one of the world's largest food security systems under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and the broader National Food Security Act (NFSA) framework, which provides subsidised grains to 800 million people through its public distribution, as per official records.

In addition, farmers also get support from the government through MSP programmes, input subsidies and fertiliser and electricity subsidies.

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