Australia, Brazil and Guatemala have made claims that India’s sugar subsidy and support programmes violate global trade rules. The WTO has allowed the three complainants to set up an adjudicatory panel to look into the matter. This comes after New Delhi dismissed first-time requests for the establishment of a singular panel for the claims on the grounds that they were different from each other in nature. However, a second request was made on 15th August, 2019, which was automatically approved under WTO rules.
The complainants have accused India of setting up subsidies for export of sugar and sugarcane that depend on export through “Minimum Indicative Export” (MIEQ) or other sugar export incentives. Australia, as the main representative of the group, has accused India of oversupply in the international sugar market, particularly a surplus of 12 million tonnes last year.
India has denied these allegations by stating that its subsidy programmes assist more than 35 million vulnerable low-income farmers by allowing them an equal share in economic development. It also said that the measures were consistent with global trade rules, and were not responsible for the mishappenings in the international sugar market.
This post has been authored by Naibedya, First year, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
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