The talks at the WTO's 11th ministerial conference have failed, as the US going back on its commitment to finding a permanent solution to the public food stockholding issue. This brought disappointment to developing countries like India.<br/><br/>The four-day conference, which ended without a ministerial declaration or any substantive outcome, did manage to make some feeble progress on fisheries and e-commerce by agreeing to work programmes.<br/><br/>As the US refused to engage, the 164-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) failed to reach a common ground for resolving the food security issue, a demand raised prominently<br/>by India.<br/><br/>Following the breakdown of talks, there was no ministerial declaration, though conference chair and Argentinean Minister Susana Malcorra made a statement highlighting the developments.<br/><br/>For India, failure to successfully push the food security the issue was a disappointment, but the officials took comfort from the fact that the country did not yield any ground on other issues and kept its defensive interests in various fields intact.<br/><br/>WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo expressed disappointment over the way the negotiations progressed and called for soul-searching among the member countries. The Indian team led by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, in cooperation with the G33 grouping, had pitched hard for a permanent solution to food security issue as it was crucial for the livelihood of 800 million people across the globe.<br/><br/>Under the global trade norms, a WTO member country's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 percent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88.<br/>Apprehending that full implementation of food security programme may result in breach of the WTO cap, India has been seeking amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap.<br/><br/>As an interim measure, the WTO members at the Bali the ministerial meeting in December 2013 had agreed to put in place a mechanism popularly called the Peace Clause and had committed to negotiating an agreement for the permanent solution at the 11th ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires.<br/><br/>On the other hand, no agreement was reached on new issues like investment facilitation, MSMEs, gender and trade in absence of consensus. India was against pushing new issues on<br/>the negotiating table as it would dilute the commitment to deal with the existing ones.