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n alliance of Indonesian and Indian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged on Thursday ministers gathering at the ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting to reject the so-called '€œpeace clause'€.

The Indonesia Global Justice executive director, Riza Damanik, said that the peace clause was biased in favor of developed countries, and therefore should not be a solution to food security problems in developing nations.

The peace clause will exempt any developing economy that breaches the WTO'€™s 10 percent subsidy limit from being challenged by other WTO members, but only within a four-year period.

'€œIndonesia as the chair of the G33 and the host of the ministerial meeting must ensure that the outcomes of the gathering reflect the genuine concerns of its members and all developing countries, and not support an '€˜agreement'€™ forced through by pressure tactics,'€ Riza said.

As developed countries intensified their political pressure at the meeting and blamed India for the stalemate on food security, it was critical that Indonesia and India as two key members in the G33 farming group joined forces to defend the interests of their peasants and workers, and the food sovereignty of their populations, he said.

The statement, signed by 37 NGOs from the two countries, came at a decisive moment when
ministers from the 159 WTO member countries were due to decide whether to make or break a deal on Friday.

The Bali meeting is aimed at reviving the Doha Round of trade talks, agreed in 2001, for comprehensive liberalization across a wide range of trade policies.

However, unresolved issues revolving around agricultural subsidies, as fought by India, are likely to derail the success of the meeting.

Afsar H. Jafri, from India, a senior research associate at the Focus on the Global South said that as a substitute for the peace clause, the necessary reform should be a revision of the external reference
price used in the calculation of subsidies, which required amendments to the WTO Agreement on
Agriculture.

'€œWhy do developing countries always have to concede? This is the time for them to come together to demand something which has been recognized by the United Nations and MDGs [Millennium Development Goals],'€ he said.

Food subsidies were a major concern for India, with the world'€™s second largest population, as the country needed to feed its 800 million poor people and protect its marginal farmers, Jafri said.

Around 80 percent of India'€™s farmers currently rely on just 0.5 hectares of land each.

Jafri added that India'€™s agriculture sector had suffered from trade-distorting subsidies in the developed nations, resulting in damage to the livelihood of its farmers.

Between 1995 and 2012, for example, around 300,000 cotton farmers committed suicide in India due to falling international prices caused by subsidies in developed nations like the United States, which Jafri said provided US$4.7 billion of subsidies to its 25,000 cotton farmers.