New Delhi, April 8 -- On April 2, US President Donald Trump, in his 'Liberation Day' speech, declared that a nation cannot survive if it does not produce its own food. For a country such as India - home to 1.41 billion people and millions of resource-poor farmers - this rings as gospel truth.

That same day, India invoked the WTO's Peace Clause to safeguard its minimum support price (MSP)-backed public stockholding programmes (PSH) for food security purposes from international challenges.

Why was invoking the Peace Clause necessary? How did India secure this critical flexibility at the WTO? And what are the lessons for policymakers and negotiators of developing countries?

Need for peace clause India's PSH programs provide price suppo...