An oil palm plan for home: Indian Express

Essence: Global trade is facing some complex issues like waiving of IPR on vaccines during health emergencies, limits on public stockholding for food security purposes, contentious subsidy, and e-commerce related problems etc.

Recently concluded 12th Ministerial Conference of WTO in Geneva could not arrive at consensus on such issues.

Inward looking behavior of countries in times of emergency like stopping export of palm oil by Malaysia have made the world paranoid about ensuring “self-sufficiency”. India is also planning steps to reduce excessive dependence on the global market for edible oil.

Authors conclude that these issues do not have any easy solution and holistic thinking and long-term vision is the only way out.

Why should you read this article?

• To understand issues plaguing global trade.
• To understand excessive import dependency faced by India in some food items.

Source:

• Ashok Gulati and Ritika Juneja write: An oil palm plan for home: