Page 398 - SSB Interview: The Complete Guide, Second Edition

Countries like India and Brazil are developing. Whereas countries like the
EU and the US are the developed ones. These developed countries want
Indian goods to be exported to them at their production cost. In other words,
they want the subsidies which our government has extended to our farmers to

be deducted and the goods exported at their actual cost or at the cost of
production plus the profit allowed. On the other hand, the farmers of

developed countries want to benefit themselves by selling their finished
products without deducting the subsidies. The implications are:

The goods which the US or European countries export are generally

their surplus stock and they want to dump it in the developing countries.

Such goods too have heavy subsidies given to their farmers by

developed countries in the form of pesticides, seeds, cheap water, power
and fertilisers. But their farmers want to sell them with subsidies added

in order to have huge profits.

These two aspects have been objected to by developing countries. The

WTO now has 150 members. There have been violent protests and
grumbling by farmers of both the developed and developing nations.

Negotiations to smooth out the differences and find a solution have been
going on for a long time now. It is a fact that the subsidies are

essentially given by the respective government to its agriculturists to

boost the farm products. The last ministerial conclave of the member
countries was held at Hong Kong in December 2005 to break the

deadlock for the first time.

The deal agreed upon by the developing countries led by India and

Brazil gave rich countries an eight-year time frame to end exports
subsidies. This implied that countries like the US, European Union

nations and Japan would phase out such subsidies by 2013, whereas

developing countries wanted these to be abolished by 2010. However,
the consensus was arrived at for 2013 as requested by the developed

countries. Once this target is achieved, the phasing out of the export