India has invoked the peace clause at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the fifth consecutive time for the marketing year 2022-23 (October-September).
This is due to breaching the prescribed subsidy limit for rice offered to its farmers.
While the value of India’s production of rice was $52.8 billion in 2022-23, a subsidy worth $6.39 billion was given to farmers during the year.
This means the rice subsidy was 12 per cent of the value of production, thereby breaching the 10 per cent domestic support ceiling.
However, there is no immediate repercussion for the breach since India has invoked the “peace clause”, agreed upon at the Bali ministerial of WTO in 2013.
This provides immunity to developing countries from challenges for breaching the ceiling for wheat and rice until a permanent solution is found.