Types of sanctions
- The Biden administration said on it is imposing new sanctions on several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies and government entities for actions in Xinjiang province, the latest step against Beijing over human rights abuses of Uighur Muslims.
- The move will bar American companies from selling components to the entities without a licence.
About sanction
- Sanctions are preventive measures which allow to respond swiftly to political challenges and developments that go against its objectives and values. For instance, sanctions can target:
- Terrorism
- Nuclear proliferation activities
- Human rights violations
- Annexation of foreign territory
- Deliberate destabilization of a sovereign country
- Diplomatic sanctions
- Sanctions in a broad sense, or diplomatic sanctions, include actions such as the interruption of diplomatic relations with the targeted country, or the coordinated recall of diplomatic representatives of the EU and its member states.
- Sanctions in a narrow sense (case of EU)
- Sanctions in a narrow sens require a specific legal base in the Treaties, and include:
Arms embargoes
- Restrictions on admission of listed persons (travel ban): targeted persons cannot enter the EU, or travel beyond their member state of nationality if they are an EU citizen
- Freezing of assets belonging to listed persons or entities: all their assets in the EU are frozen and EU persons and entities cannot make any funds available to those listed
- economic sanctions or restrictions concerning specific sectors of economic activity, including import or export bans on certain goods, investment bans, prohibitions on supplying certain services etc.
THE HINDU
Typhoon Rai
- Thousands of people in the Philippines fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Super Typhoon Rai pummeled the country
- Rai is the strongest storm to hit the disaster-prone archipelago this year.
- It was packing maximum sustained winds of 195 km an hour as it made landfall on the southern island of Siargao. Tropical cyclones are known by various names in different parts of the world.
- In the North Atlantic Ocean and the eastern North Pacific they are called hurricanes, and in the western North Pacific around the Philippines, Japan, and China the storms are referred to as typhoons.
- In the western South Pacific and Indian Ocean they are variously referred to as severe tropical cyclones, tropical cyclones, or simply cyclones. All these different names refer to the same type of storm.
- TYPHOONS-6 degree and 20 degree north and south of the equator and are most frequent from July to October. Smaller diameter of only 50 to 200 miles have steeper pressure gradient—wind velocity may reach upto 100mile/h
- Hurricanes calm rainless centres where pressure is lowest. But around the eye the wind strength exceeds force of 75miles/h.
THE HINDU
UNSC and climate security
- India’s negative vote at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on a draft resolution on climate change is a reflection of its long-held opposition to expanding the UNSC’s mandate into areas that are already being dealt with by other multinational fora.
- The resolution, piloted by Ireland and Niger and which had the support of a majority of the UNSC members, was voted down by India and Russia it has veto powers while China abstained.
- Their position is that the UNSC’s primary responsibility is “maintenance of international peace and security” and climate change-related issues are outside its ambit.
- But the supporters of the resolution argue that the climate is creating security risks in the world, which will exacerbate in the future with water shortage, migration and a destruction of livelihoods.
- Germany had circulated a similar draft last year which was never put to vote in the Security Council as the Trump administration opposed it.
- Now, with support from the Biden administration, the developed world is pushing to include what they call “climate security” in the agenda of the UNSC
- Bringing the issue under the UNSC will also give more powers to the world’s industrialised countries, which hold a veto power, to decide on future action on climate-related security issues.
- Currently, all matters related to climate change are being discussed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a specialized agency.
- And with over 190 members, its framework has made progress in tackling climate change.
- It is this process that led to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the recent COP26 summit, and has put in place an international approach to combat global climate change.
- Sure, there is valid criticism that decision making at UNFCCC conferences is slow and there has to be faster collective action to tackle climate change and associated challenges.
- But the solution is not outsourcing decision making to the five permanent members of the UNSC.
- Also, it is wrong to look at climate change through the prism of security. Each nation faces different challenges in transitioning into a greener economy
- As India’s Permanent Representative at the UN T.S. Tirumurti pointed out, the developed countries, all big polluters, have not met the promises they made with regard to climate action.
- The least developed and developing countries should be encouraged to keep the promises they made with financial assistance.
- This needs to be a collective process and the best way is through the UNFCCC, where decisions made are by consensus.
THE HINDU
Zero budget farming
- Modi urged farmers to replace the chemical fertilizers and pesticides that spurred the Green Revolution with concoctions made with the dung and urine of indigenous cows, advocating a “completely science based” shift from chemistry labs to nature’s laboratory.
- He said small farmers, who owned less than two acres and made up 80% of the country’s farming population, stood to benefit the most from natural farming techniques as they were currently forced to spend large sums on expensive fertilizers.
- Calling for a mass movement to promote natural farming, he said reducing the import bill on artificial fertilizers was an essential step to achieve the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat or a self-reliant India.
- Government’s latest push to promote zero budget natural farming techniques.
Zero budget farming
- Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
- It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.
- The movement in Karnataka state was born out of collaboration between Mr Subhash Paleuyykar, who put together the ZBNF practices, and the state farmers association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), a member of La via Campesina (LVC).
- The neoliberalization of the Indian economy led to a deep agrarian crisis that is making small scale farming an unviable vocation.
- Privatized seeds, inputs, and markets are inaccessible and expensive for peasants. Indian farmers increasingly find themselves in a vicious cycle of debt, because of the high production costs, high interest rates for credit, the volatile market prices of crops, the rising costs of fossil fuel based inputs, and private seeds.
- Debt is a problem for farmers of all sizes in India. Under such conditions, ‘zero budget’ farming promises to end a reliance on loans and drastically cut production costs, ending the debt cycle for desperate farmers.
- The word ‘budget’ refers to credit and expenses, thus the phrase ‘Zero Budget’ means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs. ‘Natural farming’ means farming with Nature and without chemicals.
THE HINDU
WTO and MSP
- Can India provide a legal guarantee for MSP without violating its international law obligations enshrined in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
- One of the central objectives of the AoA is to cut trade-distorting domestic support that WTO member countries provide to agriculture. In this regard, the domestic subsidies are divided into three categories: ‘green box’, ‘blue box’ and ‘amber box’ measures.
- Subsidies that fall under the ‘green box’ (like income support to farmers decoupled from production) and ‘blue box’ (like direct payments under production limiting programmes subject to certain conditions) are considered non-trade distorting.
- Countries can provide unlimited subsidies under these two categories.
- However, price support provided in the form of procurement of crops at MSP is classified as a trade-distorting subsidy and falls under the ‘amber box’ measures, which are subject to certain limits.
- To measure ‘amber box’ support, WTO member countries are required to compute Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS).
- AMS is the total of product-specific support (price support to a particular crop) and non-product-specific support (fertilizer subsidy).
- Under Article 6.4(b) of the AoA, developing countries such as India are allowed to provide a de minimis level of product and non-product domestic subsidy.
- This de minimis limit is capped at 10% of the total value of production of the product, in case of a product-specific subsidy; and at 10% of the total value of a country’s agricultural production, in case of non-product subsidy.
- Subsidies breaching the de minimis cap are trade-distorting. Consequently, they have to be accounted for in the AMS.
- The procurement at MSP, after comparing it with the fixed external reference price (ERP) an average price based on the base years 1986-88 has to be included in AMS.
- Since the fixed ERP has not been revised in the last several decades at the WTO, the difference between the MSP and fixed ERP has widened enormously due to inflation.
- For instance, according to the Centre for WTO Studies, India’s ERP for rice, in 1986-88, was $262.51/tonne and the MSP was less than this.
- However, India’s applied administered price for rice in 2015-16 stood at $323.06/tonne, much more than the 1986-88 ERP. When this difference is accounted for in the AMS, the possibility of overshooting the de minimis limit becomes real.
- Procuring all the 23 crops at MSP, as against the current practice of procuring largely rice and wheat, will result in India breaching the de minimis limit making it vulnerable to a legal challenge at the WTO.
- Even if the Government does not procure directly but mandates private parties to acquire at a price determined by the Government, as it happens in the case of sugarcane, the de minimis limit of 10% applies.
- Very recently, a WTO panel in the case, India Measures Concerning Sugar and Sugarcane, concluded that India breached the de minimis limit in the case of sugarcane by offering guaranteed prices paid by sugar mills to sugarcane farmers
- The AoA needs to be amended so that it provides adequate policy space to run an MSP-backed food security programme.
- The peace clause forbids bringing legal challenges against price support-based procurement for food security purposes even if it breaches the limit on domestic support.
- However, the peace clause is subject to several conditions.
- For example, it can be availed by developing countries for the support provided to traditional staple food crops to pursue public stockholding programmes for food security.
- Countries are also under an obligation to notify the WTO if their subsidies exceed the permissible level.
- India’s procurement for rice and wheat, even if it violates the de minimis limit, will enjoy legal immunity.
- However, India will not be able to employ the peace clause to defend procuring those crops that are not part of the food security programme (such as cotton, groundnut, and sunflower seed).
- Even if the AoA is amended to exclude MSP-backed procurement for food security purposes from the AMS, procurement for other crops at prices higher than the fixed ERP would be considered trade-distorting and thus subject to the de minimis limit.
- Arguably, India can move away from price-based support in the form of MSP to income-based support, which will not be trade-distorting under the AoA provided the income support is not linked to production.
THE HINDU