NEW DELHI, 15 March 2007 — India says it rejects any deadline for completing the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks and sees no breakthrough unless rich nations address the livelihood concerns of developing countries.
World Trade Organization officials are pushing for a breakthrough in the talks before the expiry of US President George W. Bush’s fast-track Trade Promotion Authority on July 1. But Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said late Tuesday following a two-day international seminar in New Delhi on the Doha Round that “there is no commitment by India on the deadline.”
Factors like the expiry of Bush’s TPA and the German Presidency of the European Union should not dictate multilateral trade negotiations, he told reporters. When asked whether he agreed with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy’s view that a deal was possible by June, Nath said Lamy was trying to build an atmosphere that is “good for flying, not for landing.” None of the big players has made any concrete offers on tariffs and farm subsidies, the main stumbling blocks, he said.
Export subsidies given by wealthy nations have become an emblematic issue for developing countries. The European Union and US have been unable to agree on the size of cuts in agriculture subsidies and tariffs protecting their farm sectors and are in turn pushing developing states to open their markets to industrial goods and services.