Supreme Court vacates ban on GM Crops trials + India on WTO draft + India-Russia

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NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development ************************************* 1. Supreme Court vacates ban order on GM crops trials 2. India welcomes new WTO draft with caution 3. India, Russia agree to boost bilateral trade to $ 10 bn - Supreme Court vacates ban

order on GM crops trials http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Supreme-Court-vacates-ban-order-on-GM-crops-trials/272520/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 2234 hrs IST New Delhi, February 13: The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted the ban on fresh approvals of genetically modified (GM) crops for field trials. On September 22, 2006 the apex court bench headed by the then Chief Justice YK Sabharwal had slapped a ban on any fresh approval of GM crops for field trials. This interim order was passed in response to a petition filed by

Aruna Rodrigues, PV Satheesh and Rajiv Barua calling for a moratorium on GM crops. Later on October 13, 2006 the apex court made an exception to its ban order and allowed field trials of GM mustard crops on the request of the developer, subject to biosafety norms. On May 8, 2007, the apex court bench headed by the new Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan further modified the ban order and allowed field trials of GM crops approved by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) till September 2006. It also imposed certain new biosafety norms. On Wednesday the apex court bench consisting of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice RV Ravindran and Justice JM Panchal vacated the ban order and allowed the GEAC to approve new GM crops and events for field trials. It said that GEAC should put in place proper guidelines and biosafety norms. While passing the order the apex court, however,

asked the GEAC to invite eminent scientists like the founder director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Pushp M Bhargava and MS Swaminathan as invities in the meetings for approval of GM crops. The Advocate for the petitioner, Prashant Bhushan said : "We pleaded that the GEAC in contempt of court order had allowed field trials of a number of GM crops. The field trials have created serious problems of genetic contamination. Russia has already said that it would not import food from India unless it certifies that no GM food crops were grown here. But the Chief Justice was in full praise for GM crops citing its benefits." The next hearing of the case on moratorium on GM has been fixed for April, 2008. --------- India welcomes new WTO draft with caution

http://www.financialexpress .com/news/India-welcomes-new -WTO-draft-with-caution/272126 /0 ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Tuesday , February 12, 2008 at 2024 hrs IST New Delhi, February 12: India, cautiously welcoming the new WTO draft proposals on agriculture and NAMA, said that it would hold consultations with other developing countries and stakeholders in the country before shaping its final views. Reacting to the new farm draft issued on February 8 in Geneva, the Union commerce

minister, Kamal Nath said : "We will do our best to protect our poor farmers who cannot be expected to bear the burden of trade distorting subsidies in rich countries". He said while convergence has been achieved in some areas in the draft, yet there remained some issues to be resolved. He pointed out that significant and effective reduction of trade distorting subsidies of the developed countries was an issue on which there can be no compromise. Nath, however, expressed satisfaction over the new farm draft bringing back the original G-20 proposals for a minimum 54% in agricultural tariff by developed countries and maximum tariff cut of 36% for developing countries. The minister stated that the agriculture text distilled the progress made in negotiations between September 2007 and January 2008. While convergence has been achieved in some areas, the chair has also put out

brand new text in some other unresolved areas and these would require detailed deliberations e.g. Special Products (SPs), Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), Special Safeguards, Tropical Products, Tariff Simplification etc. There were also some other issues on which large divergences still exist, e.g. OTDS, market access in Sensitive Products, Tariff Capping etc. He said: "Significant and effective reduction of trade distorting subsidies of the developed countries is an issue on which there can be no compromise because they impact adversely upon the livelihood of millions of our poor farmers". He added that: "Indian agriculture cannot be expected to carry the burden and most definitely not in a Development Round". "India had always espoused the concept of two thirds proportionality between developed and developing countries in tariff reductions" he added. Nath said that a lot of

work still remains to be done on Special Products (SPs). India has already indicated that one of its "must-haves" on SPs was a significant number of tariff lines, which did not have to take any tariff cuts. Also, logic demands that the cuts for other SPs had to be more favourable than for Sensitive Products. On the Special Safeguard Mechanism, the minister opined that some of the proposals in the text were likely to render the SSM unworkable and detract from its utility. The SSM was a defensive instrument to safeguard livelihood issues: "How can a weak instrument provide the required protection?" he asked. Volume and price triggers have to be sensitive and independent of each other. This has to be recognized. India has always maintained that a simple, easy-to-use SSM was in the best interests of all. On the new NAMA draft, Nath said : "Our industry would need greater lexibilities as compared to the industries

in the developed countries. He expressed his disapproval over the removal of numbers on Para 8 of the earlier Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) text, which gave some flexibilities to developing countries and has been on the table since July 2004. Nath noted that though the revised NAMA text continues with the earlier proposals on Swiss coefficients, it reflects that there are other points of view held by many countries. He stated that these numbers were the very least that the developing countries, including India, needed in order to protect their infant industries, small-scale industries, and vulnerable sectors. "We need greater flexibilities" he added. The chair should not have withdrawn the numbers from the text and left room for ambiguity to creep in. He expressed the hope that the chair of the Rules Negotiating Group would take a cue from the NAMA chair and now come out with a revised text, which

truly can reflects the views of the membership rather than representing just the views of one country, as in the case of the anti-dumping proposals. He stated that the text on fisheries subsidies has to be radically revised in order to take into account the actual conditions in which small, artisanal fisheries in the developing world have to operate. "This is an issue that critically impinges upon the livelihood of millions of poor fisherfolk in India and other countries. It cannot be left unaddressed" he added. Sounding an optimistic note, Nath said that the revised texts can form the basis for constructive engagement and negotiation in the coming weeks. However, a lot of hard work still lies ahead. For instance, there are around 170 square brackets in the agriculture text alone, which have to be reduced through intensive negotiations to a small and manageable number. "There are admittedly a number of areas where there are strong differences of opinion. Convergence in these areas will have to be incrementally achieved in these areas" he said. It was vitally important to bear in mind the overarching development mandate of the Round. If India's developed country trading partners recognize this, it would hasten the process of removing the square brackets and reaching convergence. India was committed to concluding the Doha Round quickly, he said. "Now is the time for progress in other areas of interest to the WTO membership, viz. Rules and Services. There must be simultaneous progress on all fronts if we are to clinch a deal by end 2008" he concluded.... --- India, Russia agree to boost bilateral trade to $ 10 bn http://www.financialexpress .com/news/IndiaRussia-agree-to -boost-bilateral-trade-to-10 -bn/272362/0 ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 0058 hrs IST New Delhi, Feb 12 India and Russia agreed to more than double their bilateral trade to $ 10 billion by 2010. A comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) between the two countries is on the anvil. Also on Tuesday both the countries completed negotiations on a civil nuclear pact. Russia is slated to build four more nuclear reactors in Tamil Nadu after a

green signal from Nuclear Suppliers Group. "If we grow by 30% per year in bilateral trade, we might achieve the figure of $ 10 billion by 2010," the visiting Russian Prime Minister Victor A Zubkov said at the meeting of the India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment (IRFTI) organised by the two apex industry bodies – CII and FICCI. India has offered to revive its tea trade with Russia and has offered to export tobacco and cooperate in pharma sector. Russia lifted the ban on import of farm products which was imposed after a dangerous grain pest was found in a seasame consignment, two weeks ago. At present India's exports to Russia are to the tune of $ one billion, which is less than one per cent of its overall export. Zubkov who is leading a strong business delegation also met the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh earlier in the day. "We are investing Russian rupee debt in the Indian Economy," he said. VTB Bank became the first Russian Bank to open its full service branch in the country to service corporate clients. "The branch will mostly serve corporate clients and is designed to contribute to forging foreign trade relationship between Russia and India," VTB Bank Deputy Chairman Titov Vasily said. The VTB Bank's branch assets in New Delhi are slated to exceed $ 50 million by the end of this year with equity amounting to $ 27 million, he said and added that by next year the branch assets likely to double to over $ 90 million. At present Indian banks -- State Bank of India and Canara Bank combine and ICICI Bank have branches in Russia. "Our largest bank, Sber Bank would soon begin its operation in India", said the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Zhukov. The

Indian commerce minister, Kamal Nath said that his interaction with IRFTI revealed that the Russian firms were interested in a host of Indian sectors, including engineering, metallurgy, automobile, aircraft building and infrastructure development. He said that Russia was interested in India's growing telecom sector and was therefore interested for cooperation in the production of titanium oxide. He said that Indian software giant, Tata Consultancy Services was willing to set up a unit in Russia by March 2008. India and Russia signed MoUs -- one on development of cooperation in matters of customs and another in the field of archives. Both the countries also agreed that "vast potential" existed for cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons. The two sides also signed an MoU for cooperation between customs departments for fighting drug smuggling and trafficking of psychotropic substances and their precursors,

dual-use goods, contraband for which a joint working group will be formed. Under the pact, the two countries will have information exchange, regular meetings of the customs officials to counter customs violations and sharing best practices. An agreement between Kingfisher and Russia's Aeroflot and a pact between two telecom companies of the two countries were also inked.... --------

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