International Organizations (Part – III)

Roberto Azevedo of Brazil became the 6th Director-General of WTO after replacing Pascal Lamy on 1 September, 2013. In 2017, he entered into 2nd term as Director-General of WTO. WTO members made history on 15 February, 2021 when the General Council agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the organization's seventh Director-General. After taking office on 1 March, 2021, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the first woman and the first African Director-General of WTO. Her term, renewable, will expire on 31 May, 2025.

India has been a member of World Trade Organization since 1 January, 1995 and a member of GATT since 8 July, 1948, The WTO has 164 members and 25 observer governments since 29 July, 2016. Afghanistan became the 164th member on 29 July, 2016. On 26 February 2024, at the 13th Ministerial Conference of WTO in Abu Dhabi, Comoros and Timor Leste were approved to became the new members of WTO, once they complete their domestic ratification procedures.

Nepal became the 147th member of WTO on 23 April, 2004.

Among the given countries, Serbia is not a member of WTO. At present, Serbia has the observer status in WTO.

World Trade Organization (WTO) was established on 1 January, 1995 to regulate and facilitate trade among the member countries. The Uruguay Round (1986-93) was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) within the framework of GATT, which led to the creation of the World Trade Organisation. One of the main objectives of WTO is to bring liberalization in international trade, but it is failure of Doha Round virtually halted multilateral trade will far away to achieve multilateral trade liberalization. The liberalization for years to come.

The Doha round is the latest round of trade negotiations among the WTO members. Its aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The Doha Round was officially launched at WTO's 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November, 2001. The central issue in Doha round of talks of WTO has been the subsidies on agriculture and regulations on agricultural import. Agriculture has become the most important and controversial issue, as it is particularly important for the developing countries.

The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of GATT, and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO on 1 January, 1995. Anti- dumping and compensatory duties were not included in the three pillars of Agreement on Agriculture under the World Trade Organization. The three main pillars of Agreement on Agriculture are:

(i) Market access

(ii) Domestic support

(ii) Export competition (reduction of export subsidies)

In WTO terminology, subsidies in general are identified by boxes' which are given the colours of traffic lights: green (permitted), amber (slow down-i.e. need to be reduced), red (forbidden). The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has no red box (although domestic support exceeding the reduction commitment levels in the amber box is prohibited). It has green box, amber box and blue box.

Subsidies that do not distort trade or at most cause minimum distortion are in green box and permitted. Direct income support for farmers that are not related to (are 'decoupled' from) current production levels or prices, environmental protection and regional development programmes, research funding, farmer training programmes, pest-disease control programmes etc. are included in this category. Domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box. These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities. These supports are subject to limits-generally 5% of agricultural production for developed countries and 10% for developing countries. Blue box is the 'amber box with conditions' conditions designed to reduce distortion. Included in the blue box are any support payments that are not subject to the amber box because they are direct payments under a production limiting programme. To be included in blue box category, direct payments must be made on fixed areas and yields or payments must be made on 85 percent or less of the base level of production. At present, there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.

India's Minimum Support Price (MSP) system falls under the amber box which is subject to limits of 10% and it has frequently come under WTO scanner. NITI Aayog has suggested 'Price Deficiency Payment' (PDP) system to address the gaps in MSP based procurement of crops. Under PDP, farmers are proposed to be compensated for the part of difference between the government-announced MSPs of select crops and their actual market prices. This subsidy may be paid via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the farmer's Aadhaar-linked bank account and it will fall under WTO blue box which has no cap at present.

In WTO terminology, subsidies in general are identified by boxes' which are given the colours of traffic lights: green (permitted), amber (slow down-i.e. need to be reduced), red (forbidden). The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has no red box (although domestic support exceeding the reduction commitment levels in the amber box is prohibited). It has green box, amber box and blue box.

Subsidies that do not distort trade or at most cause minimum distortion are in green box and permitted. Direct income support for farmers that are not related to (are 'decoupled' from) current production levels or prices, environmental protection and regional development programmes, research funding, farmer training programmes, pest-disease control programmes etc. are included in this category. Domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box. These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities. These supports are subject to limits-generally 5% of agricultural production for developed countries and 10% for developing countries. Blue box is the 'amber box with conditions' conditions designed to reduce distortion. Included in the blue box are any support payments that are not subject to the amber box because they are direct payments under a production limiting programme. To be included in blue box category, direct payments must be made on fixed areas and yields or payments must be made on 85 percent or less of the base level of production. At present, there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.

India's Minimum Support Price (MSP) system falls under the amber box which is subject to limits of 10% and it has frequently come under WTO scanner. NITI Aayog has suggested 'Price Deficiency Payment' (PDP) system to address the gaps in MSP based procurement of crops. Under PDP, farmers are proposed to be compensated for the part of difference between the government-announced MSPs of select crops and their actual market prices. This subsidy may be paid via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the farmer's Aadhaar-linked bank account and it will fall under WTO blue box which has no cap at present.

In WTO terminology, subsidies in general are identified by boxes' which are given the colours of traffic lights: green (permitted), amber (slow down-i.e. need to be reduced), red (forbidden). The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has no red box (although domestic support exceeding the reduction commitment levels in the amber box is prohibited). It has green box, amber box and blue box.

Subsidies that do not distort trade or at most cause minimum distortion are in green box and permitted. Direct income support for farmers that are not related to (are 'decoupled' from) current production levels or prices, environmental protection and regional development programmes, research funding, farmer training programmes, pest-disease control programmes etc. are included in this category. Domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box. These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities. These supports are subject to limits-generally 5% of agricultural production for developed countries and 10% for developing countries. Blue box is the 'amber box with conditions' conditions designed to reduce distortion. Included in the blue box are any support payments that are not subject to the amber box because they are direct payments under a production limiting programme. To be included in blue box category, direct payments must be made on fixed areas and yields or payments must be made on 85 percent or less of the base level of production. At present, there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.

India's Minimum Support Price (MSP) system falls under the amber box which is subject to limits of 10% and it has frequently come under WTO scanner. NITI Aayog has suggested 'Price Deficiency Payment' (PDP) system to address the gaps in MSP based procurement of crops. Under PDP, farmers are proposed to be compensated for the part of difference between the government-announced MSPs of select crops and their actual market prices. This subsidy may be paid via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the farmer's Aadhaar-linked bank account and it will fall under WTO blue box which has no cap at present.