India has no immediate plans to lift a ban on wheat exports but will continue with deals which are done directly with other governments, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told Reuters. “Currently there’s instability in the world, if we were to do that (lift the ban), it would only help black marketeers, hoarders and speculators. Neither will it help the really vulnerable and needy countries,” Goyal said when asked if New Delhi had any plans to allow private exports to resume. “The smarter way to do it is through the government-to-government route, by which we can give affordable wheat grain to the most vulnerable poor,” he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Goyal also said he had been in contact with the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund to explain the rationale behind India’s wheat export ban.
