New Delhi: Former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday accused Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of “misinforming Parliament” over the settlement reached on the ninth WTO Ministerial Convention in Bali in December 2013, rejecting her claims that the earlier Congress-led UPA authorities had violated India’s meals safety pursuits.
In a press release, Sharma stated it was “unlucky and surprising” what Sitharaman referred to as “unwarranted claims” that the UPA “bought out” India’s meals safety rights at WTO conferences.
She referred to as the accusations “false and unwarranted” and argued that the information on document and official WTO paperwork contradict her claims.
Addressing the court docket on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sitharaman responded to Rahul Gandhi’s accusation that the Modi authorities bowed to US strain in signing an interim commerce deal, alleging that it was the UPA that harmed India’s pursuits by signing the Commerce Facilitation Settlement (TFA) in 2013 with out guaranteeing safety for India’s public grain reserves.
Assertion on the WTO by Shri Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce and Trade. pic.twitter.com/OwFEfGxx3h
— Anand Sharma (@AnandSharmaINC) February 12, 2026
Sharma countered that Sitharaman’s feedback had been “orchestrated for political acquire”. He stated New Delhi had succeeded in placing the problem of public stockpiling for meals safety on the Bali cupboard’s agenda with out bowing to strain from developed international locations, together with the US.
India’s foodgrain procurement and subsidy packages had been a key difficulty on the 2013 WTO assembly, with some exceeding the WTO’s 10% cap on agricultural subsidies. Member states then agreed to interim “peace phrases” that might not legally problem growing international locations like India over these violations whereas talks continued on a everlasting answer to the meals safety program.
Sharma stated India has succeeded in constructing a broad coalition of growing international locations throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, which has pressured developed international locations to agree to barter a everlasting answer to the “outdated and inherently flawed” WTO guidelines governing agricultural subsidies.
“The Bali ministers had reached 10 agreements, together with preferential market entry to LDCs (least developed international locations) and TFAs. The India-led coalition of growing international locations agreed to the WTO settlement solely after first securing the correct to public stockpiling of meals grains for meals safety functions,” Sharma stated.
He added that the protections secured transcend short-term preparations and India’s MSP-related public shareholding program is successfully “past authorized problem” on the WTO.
“In a present of political dignity, the then Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman advised Parliament {that a} everlasting settlement could be signed by December 2015, according to the assurances given by the US President to Prime Minister Modi. Nevertheless, despite the fact that 12 years have handed because the Bali Ministerial Declaration and 11 years because the Common Council choice, a everlasting answer to the problem has nonetheless not been reached,” Sharma added.
(Edited by Amrutanshu Arora)
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