The World Trade Organization members have failed to agree on a global customs pact drawn up in meetings in Bali last December. The Trade Facilitation Agreement would have streamlined global customs procedures, and should have been finalised by yesterday. But it was blocked over a number of rifts, including India's demands for concessions on the stockpiling of foodgrains.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told trade diplomats in Geneva that they have not been able to find a solution that would allow them to bridge that gap. He asked WTO members to reflect long and hard on the ramifications of this setback. The US Ambassador to the WTO, Michael Punke, said that the failure to agree on a deal had put this institution on very uncertain ground. The WTO had seemed to be on the verge of reaching its first comprehensive agreement since it was founded in 1995. India had said last year that the planned deal could endanger domestic policies designed to help feed its poor.

India had already made it clear at the WTO General Council meeting held last week in Geneva that it would not ratify the TFA until a permanent solution is found on food security issues. India yesterday again emphasized that its stand remains unchanged. India is pressing for an amendment to WTO norms regarding the stockpile of foodgrains, an issue critical to India’s food security programme. The current WTO norms limit the value of food subsidies at 10 per cent of the total value of food grain production. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to New Delhi, had said yesterday that he was hopeful that the differences between India and the other countries could be resolved.