Securing Rules to Fight Hunger and Poverty

Abstract Ensuring food security and addressing hunger remain some of the most daunting challenges for most developing countries. Rules under the Agreement on Agriculture at the WTO have also created some impediments on this issue, particularly for countries that implement public stockholding programmes for foodstuffs. During the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations, India was at the forefront of seeking changes in WTO rules, which would allow developing countries to continue with their public stockholding programmes. While charting the tumultuous course of the negotiations on this issue, particularly during 2013–2014, the chapter brings to the fore how, on account of inadequate understanding of negotiating strategies, India almost lost the plot. It provides a gripping account of the bold efforts that were subsequently required to retrieve the lost ground. At the negotiating table, for almost two years, the USA refused to even negotiate on India’s demand on the issue of food security. With India pushed into a corner, and the risk of the scheme of procurement of food grains for public stockholding purposes getting unravelled within a few years becoming apparent, audacious strategies involving issue-linkage and brinkmanship emerged. These strategies, in conjunction with certain propitious political circumstances, helped India secure its negotiating objectives going beyond the Bali peace Clause negotiated at the Bali Ministerial Conference in 2013. An issue that appeared intractable for almost two years was magically resolved within an hour in a crucial meeting between India and the USA held in October 2014. By increasing the cost for the USA of not engaging constructively in the negotiation on public stockholding issue, India was able to get its way. Based on the personal accounts of the insiders directly involved in this episode, the chapter provides many lessons on negotiating strategy.