US urges India to withdraw wheat ban
Afp, New Delhi
The United States urged India Thursday to end an effective ban on imported US wheat, saying the measure only meant New Delhi had to pay more than it needed on the international market. The US embassy said the regulations, linked to India's concerns over possible contamination of local wheat varieties, involved "standards that are impossible to certify". "By excluding the United States from its market, India decreases competition, which significantly raises the cost of imported wheat and translates into higher flour prices for Indian consumers," an embassy statement said. India, the world's second-largest wheat producer, exported no wheat last year for the first time in six years after shortages forced it to import the commodity. Domestic demand for subsidised wheat for the poor has also reached 12 million tonnes annually, but the country has on hand only five million tonnes of buffer stocks, according to farm ministry figures.
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