REPORT: What ways forward for food stocks at the WTO?

IISD (2021) Procuring Food Stocks Under World Trade Organization Farm Subsidy Rules - Finding a permanent solution. By Joe Glauber, Tanvi Sinha, 38 p.

To help advance the reform agenda on food stocks vital for food security, our new report offers insights on possible ways forward on the long standing issue of public stockholding programmes at the WTO. It focuses on five broad options to advance reforms and concludes that the interim 2013 Bali Decision (WTO, 2013) to exempt public stockholding programs from legal challenge under certain conditions could be a constructive way forward, with some technical fixes.

This report summarizes the current negotiating proposals at the World Trade Organization that include among others: exempting food bought at administered prices under public stockholding programs from the calculation of trade-distorting support; revisiting the external reference price in the calculation of market price support; taking into consideration excessive rates of inflation; redefining eligible production; including new programs; and expanding product coverage. The report then analyzes the evolving market and policy context, including for key commodities such as rice and wheat. Finally, it examines the advantages and disadvantages of various possible ways in which the public stockholding issue could be addressed and identifies possible ways forward.