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 Under the pact with Washington, India will lift a veto on a global
agreement on streamlining customs rules that is likely to add $1
trillion to the world economy as well as 21 million jobs - 18
million of them in developing countries.
Modi, elected in May, had pulled the plug on the World Trade
Organization (WTO) agreement four months ago because he objected to
a related deal on food security.
Washington, which was the principal opponent of India's food scheme
on the grounds that it distorted trade, hailed Thursday's deal.
Trade Representative Michael Froman said it would "give new momentum
to multilateral efforts at the WTO" and predicted the Trade
Facilitation Agreement (TFA) struck by the WTO last year in Bali,
Indonesia, would now win quick ratification.
Yet, at a conference call to brief reporters on the deal, Froman
declined to answer questions on what concessions India had given in
return.
In talks to break the deadlock, India stressed the importance of
ensuring that its 1.25 billion people, many of them poor, have
enough to eat. It won an open-ended commitment from Washington to
protect its food purchase and distribution scheme from any challenge
under WTO disputes procedures.
Without the clause, India could have been vulnerable to attack by
trade partners over exports of any surplus grain stocks accumulated
in government warehouses.
New Delhi's blockade had plunged the WTO into its worst crisis in
two decades, leading Director General Roberto Azevedo to float the
idea of abandoning the consensus principle on which the 160-member
group operates.
Modi's tough line jarred with the 'Make in India' pitch he has taken
to investors abroad in his first five months in charge. He could
have been isolated at his first G20 summit of world leaders in
Brisbane, Australia, this weekend.
But India, home to a sixth of the world's population, is one of the
few bright spots in a flagging global economy and Modi was
vindicated in his conviction that its promising market for cars,
mobile phones and medicines would not be cut adrift.
"This is a huge plus for the world trading system - it uncorks TFA
and potentially other deals," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of
Asian Economics Research at HSBC in Singapore.
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"From Modi's perspective, it's a major victory to say we've got an
indefinite stay of execution on our food subsidy scheme."
QUIET CONFIDENCE
Modi instructed aides early last week to strike a deal. Throughout
the impasse, Indian officials expressed quiet confidence that
Azevedo would not win enough backing to follow through on his
threat.
India had called for a permanent 'peace clause' to protect its food
stockpiling scheme, subject to certain conditions, until a permanent
solution on the issue was found at the WTO. Under the Bali accord,
the peace clause would have expired after four years.
India refused to bow to calls to scale back its scheme to buy wheat
and rice from its farmers, despite criticism that this encouraged
overproduction. A food security law passed by the last government
actually expanded the number who were entitled to receive cheap food
grains to 850 million.
In a recent disclosure to the WTO, India said its state food
procurement cost $13.8 billion in 2010-11, part of the total of
$56.1 billion it spends on farm support. Wheat stocks, at 30 million
tonnes, are more than double official target levels.
The India-United States compromise should now go before a Dec. 11-12
meeting of the WTO's General Council, its highest decision-making
body, for ratification, Indian trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman
said.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Matt Siegel in Sydney;
Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex
Richardson)
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