WTO & US- A political mix challenging the health concerns of Indian farmers

The World Trade Organization's agreement on Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures offers member countries the right to set their own standards for safeguarding health and plant life. But it also restricts member countries’ right to use precautionary principals. Using this alley in SPS agreement, the United States exerted a heavy political influence on Indian policies around quarantine norms for wheat import. Furthermore, WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture intended to create free trade across countries in agriculture, has actually created an unequal global platform creating devastating impacts on livelihood and health and of Indian farmers.The proposed Indo-US bilateral trade agreement can worsen the negative impacts of trade liberalization. There is an imminent need to reconsider the value for health in trade policies and calls for the involvement of farmers in national and international policymaking.