During the 9th Ministerial Conference (MC9) in the Indonesian province of Bali, the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was extended through the night as India stalled negotiations over 'peace clause' in deal for food security.

Years later, a similar scene happened at the just concluded 13^th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the conference closure forced to drag to Saturday and not Thursday as earlier slated.

Once again, it was India and this time joined by some developing nations with the debate over the permanent solution regarding PSH that appears as a big barrier to reaching a compromise position in the conference.

The big differences over fisheries subsidies, e-commerce, and reform in the WTO dispute settlement still wobbled on, compelling negotiators to stretch out the talks until midnight. The formal closing session was then deferred by four hours from the scheduled 8:00 pm until the filing of the report at 6:00 pm in Abu Dhabi with the possibility of the parleys prolonging into an unscheduled extra day on Friday.

There was evident tension as it was clear the ministerial conference could conclude without a final joint statement, or with a modest version with a chair's declaration on some unresolved issues.

India and a few other developing countries were at loggerheads with the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) as both sides took an uncompromising stance at the battle of wits over the global trade regime.

The developing few argued that a permanent solution must cover all the farm products of developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

India is strongly pushing for a permanent solution to safeguard minimum support prices (MSP) for farmers and ensure domestic subsidies for procurement and stockpiling of food.

Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal, in his written statement, argued that the development agenda would remain incomplete without a permanent solution on Public Stockholding (PSH) for food-security purposes.

"This has been and continues to be a long-pending issue since the last few decades, and despite having a clear mandate agreed by us in the past MCs, finding a permanent solution on PSH remains an unaccomplished agenda on which we have to deliver in MC13," he noted.

 Developed countries argued that India's minimum-support price (MSP) scheme for key agricultural products and export restrictions on commodities such as rice are actually subsidies and tools that are distorting the trade.

India was also opposing continuity of e-commerce moratorium and demands that there should be no bar to imposing customs duties on electronic transmission. Developed countries are, however, in favor of continuation of the moratorium at least up to the next ministerial conference.

"E-commerce is growing rapidly and the moratorium helps the growth," said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, while talking to a group of. "The European Union as well as many developing countries are in favor of extending the moratorium."

The four-day MC13 of the WTO started Monday with trade ministers and senior officials of 164 members attending. The Ugandan delegation was headed by the Minister of State for Trade Harriet Ntabazi and members from SEATINI, a Civil Society Organization.