Despite hectic discussions, WTO MC13 ends with no deals on fisheries, agriculture

The talks at the WTO's ministerial conference ended with no decision on key issues such as finding a permanent solution to public food stockpile and on curbing fisheries subsidies that lead to over-capacity and over-fishing, sources said. Despite the four days of hectic parleys getting extended for a day, the 166-member World Trade Organisation was not able to reach a common ground for resolving the food security issue, a demand raised prominently by India, and curbing subsidies that leads to overfishing and over capacity. New Delhi was pressing for a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding of grains for food security programmes and has asked developed countries engaged in distant water fishing to stop providing any kind of subsidies for 25 years. Developing nations including India were asking for updating the external reference prices used to calculate market price support in public stockholding, which are currently based on 1986-88 reference prices.