India has reached an agreement with the United States on public stockpiling of food, commerce minister Niramala Sitharaman said today, paving the way for the implementation of a global trade facilitation deal that has been stalled for months.

"India and the United States have resolved their differences on public stockholding of food," Sithamaran said. "This opens the way for implementation of the WTO trade facilitation deal."
At the end of July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pulled the plug on implementing a Trade Facilitation Agreement struck in Bali last year.
 
India had wanted indefinitely to extend a 'peace clause' to protect a subsidised food distribution scheme until the WTO can strike a definitive deal on stockpiling. In Bali, the WTO agreed that the clause would expire in four years.