agamdilawari
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![anand-sharma-wto-360.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ndtv.com%2Fnews%2Fimages%2Fanand-sharma-wto-360.jpg&hash=97bf037040831371842cd2516add8b3c)
Bali, Indonesia: India today achieved a major victory for its food security stand in Bali with the World Trade Organisation or WTO agreeing to provide food subsidy without any punitive action.
New Delhi had insisted it would not compromise on a policy of subsidising food for hundreds of millions of poor, putting it at odds with the United States and other developed countries.
The central government will next year fully implement its flagship Food Security Bill, a welfare programme to provide cheap food to 800 million people that it fears will contravene WTO rules curbing farm subsidies to 10 per cent of production.
The programme, which relies on large-scale stockpiling and purchases at minimum prices, is a central plank of the government's bid to win a third term in office next year in elections due by May next year.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had earlier said that he would endorse a draft trade reform at the World Trade Organization, removing a major obstacle to a deal.
"It is a victory for the WTO and for the global community to have arrived at a mature decision," Sharma told reporters. "We are more than happy. It is a great day. It is a historic day."
Ministers from nearly 160 member countries of the World Trade Organisation entered a final day of negotiations on Friday with officials sounding optimistic over chances of salvaging a deal that would save the trade body from sliding into irrelevance.
In an organization based on consensus among its members, attention focused squarely on India today as the main stumbling block to the WTO's first global trade deal in two decades.
Historic WTO deal on India's terms, food security stand prevails | NDTV.com