Miss Priya, a student at the National Law University, Delhi, discusses whether minimum support price commitments need to be reviewed in light of the efforts made by the developing countries to provide food security for its people.

Abstract

The majority of the developing countries including India have repeatedly been challenged for their domestic price support measures related to agricultural products. Today, as the World Trade Organization and the Developed Members gear up for a long drawn dispute about the breach of support related commitments by the food insecure countries, the author attempts to uncover the layers of possible rationales of the developing nations to continue with such support practices. 

The paper will discuss whether these commitments need to be reviewed, in light of the efforts made by the developing countries to provide food security for its people. The author attempts to test the justification given by the developing nations for reconsideration of the WTO rules. This paper goes in-depth to analyze the problems faced in their compliance and assess the corresponding effects of inflation on their ability to maintain their support levels. The author further evaluates the recourses adopted by affected countries to tackle the market volatilities by the usage of the instrument of Art-18.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture. The focus of this article is upon the question of why all these possible measures need to be catered to uphold the core values of WTO, with the author concluding by suggesting the scope for resolution of these contentious issues to ensure free and fair global trade.