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INDIA DISAPPOINTED WITH WTO DRAFT PAPER ON AGRICULTURE
SAYS KAMAL NATH
SENSITIVITIES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LEFT UNADDRESSED
INDIA TO WORK WITH OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ON COMMON
RESPONSE
Date : 04 May 2007
Location : New Delhi
Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of
Commerce & Industry, has said that India is disappointed with a Paper on
Agriculture circulated at a
Special Session of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva on 30 April,
2007 “because while the concerns of
all the developed countries have been taken fully on board in a spirit of mutual
accommodation, the sensitivities of developing countries with millions of
resource poor farmers, have been left effectively unaddressed”.
India strongly feels that
any outcome of the Doha Development Round, which tends to perpetuate
the structural flaws and distortions in agriculture trade and does not
address the sensitivities of the agriculture of the developing countries and
LDCs, will run counter to the Doha mandate and risk another failure of the
recently resumed negotiations, Shri Kamal Nath warned.
In a statement issued in
London today on his return from Oxford, the Minister said that India is
specially disappointed to note that the Paper by the Chair of the WTO Committee
on Agriculture suffers from a serious imbalance in terms of the suggested way
forward. While it proposes that effectively, the Overall Trade Distorting
Support (OTDS) of one of the major agricultural subsidisers could remain at
least 50% above its actual levels of subsidies disbursed last year, it also
suggests indirectly that the market access commitments of the major group of
developed countries could remain at levels proposed in July, 2006 at the time of
the breakdown of negotiations or could even be reduced effectively from that
level by using liberal flexibilities Such a step would also lead to the
impairment of the reduction commitments to the high tariff regimes of another
group of developed countries. Side by side, “the Paper proposes stringent
norms and low numbers for the Special Products (of agriculture) of developing
countries and LDCs, which are required to protect their food security,
livelihood security and rural development needs. It also leaves the question of
removal of subsidies relating to cotton by a major developed country, which
has caused serious problems to many African LDCs, largely unanswered”,
the Minister said.
“India will work together
with the G-20, G-33 and G-90 group of developing countries to put forward a
common response to the proposals and options presented in the Paper”,
Shri Kamal Nath said.
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