GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 06th Oct. India has attempted to strengthen its stance by outlawing rice and wheat and increasing global demand for Indian agricultural products. With this, India also pushed aside the hegemonic legacy that had long sought to undermine it. India now knows how to make the rest of the world bow down before her.
India has recently responded to the WTO in a very forceful manner. Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, made a strong case for the continuation of the fisheries subsidy and the IPR waiver for the Covid-19 vaccine at the WTO ministerial conference in Geneva. He even succeeded in obtaining both of these.
Even as some WTO members like Senegal, the United States, and the European Union questioned this decision, India has now once more defended its decision to ban the export of wheat and rice.
India made it clear that the restriction on the export of broken rice, a grain used in poultry feed, came as a result of a recent increase in the exportation of the grain, which put pressure on the domestic market. Concerns about food security forced export restrictions for wheat.
Additionally, India has stated that the measures are temporary in nature and are being continually observed by officials.
During the recent Russia-Ukraine war, food and fuel prices have increased dramatically worldwide. With rising prices for staple foods, consumers are suffering from high inflation. However, the government of India has managed to keep food inflation under control over the last two years since Covid-19 by continuing to distribute additional free rations while also restricting exports when necessary.
In India, the situation is quite under control. Except for oil and lentils, India produces most of its own food. Any independent nation would naturally prioritize protecting its own citizens over looking out for those of the EU or China, which stock emergency food supplies with Indian imports. In the fiscal year that ended in March 2022, India’s rice exports, which are also the country’s second-largest grain imports, increased from 17.8 million tons to a record 21.2 million tons. Compared to 77 million tons during the same period last year, Food Corporation of India has purchased a record 80.4 million tons of rice paddy from growers so far this year.
India exported roughly 3.9 million tons of broken rice in 2021–2022, mainly to China, where it was used as animal feed. In India, where broken rice is used to make ethanol and as cattle feed, the high exports led to a shortage.
In comparison to 2018–19, the food ministry reports that total broken rice exports increased by more than three times in 2021–22. China’s strong demand, which increased from zero imports in 2018–19 and 2019–20 to 0.27 million tons in 2020–21 and 1.6 million tons in 2021–22, was the main driver of this.
India has already exported 2.1 million tons of broken rice between April and August of 2022, which is an increase over previous years. In addition to China, some less developed African nations like Senegal and Djibouti import broken rice from India for domestic use.
How broken rice exports affected India
Data provided by the food ministry indicate that the domestic ethanol and animal feed manufacturing industries are having difficulty supplying broken rice at competitive prices. Due to strong exports, the price of broken rice increased by 27% in just eight months, from Rs 16 per kg in early January to Rs 22 per kg in early September. India has set a goal of blending 20% ethanol with gasoline by 2025, which cannot be achieved solely with sugar-based feedstock. For this reason, grain-based feedstocks like maize and broken rice have been permitted since 2018–19.
The government forbade the export of goods used on a daily basis like wheat, broken rice, etc. in order to protect Indian consumers from rising exports and a northward movement in food prices. Any nation that prioritizes its citizens would have acted in the same way. Even though India is not in the same league as them, it unquestionably prioritizes the needs of its citizens. The western countries should now stop being a bother and comprehend the reasoning behind India’s actions.
When it came to the hunger index or giving Indian farmers the freedom to produce and export their goods at a fair price, Western People and their lobbying groups, which were posing as world leaders in international organizations, have long placed India at the bottom of the heap. Even though India was at its lowest point, these leaders continued to put us down.
Importance of the WTO has diminished over the past few years
The importance of the WTO has diminished over the past few years, particularly since Trump took office in the United States in 2016 and countries all over the world have begun adopting protectionist policies. The World Trade Organization, an organization that oversees international trade and is tasked with ensuring fair and free trade between countries, performs about as poorly at maintaining international peace as the UN.
The organization’s inability to safeguard the interests of the least developed nations has been repeatedly exposed, leading these countries to abandon its ostensibly rule-based trade. The fact that China has bent the WTO to its will and taken advantage of its flaws to monopolise international trade has not gone over well with even developed countries, especially the US. The WTO has helped China become the largest exporter in the world today.
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