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Jaitley reaffirms Indian position on farm subsidies

By C. Rammanohar Reddy

CANCUN SEPT. 9. Ahead of the formal opening of the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting here tomorrow, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Arun Jaitley, has reiterated India's position on agriculture in the Doha round of trade talks and insisted that the procedures for negotiations during the Cancun conference should be transparent and participative.

In bilateral parleys yesterday with the European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, and then with the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, the Commerce Minister said to the chief negotiators of the two most powerful members of the WTO that the first priority had to be the E.U. and the U.S. reducing their huge farm subsidies.

Mr. Jaitley ruled out India agreeing at the WTO to lowering its import duties on agriculture, as these tariffs offered the only protection to Indian farmers who faced a slump in crop prices because of the subsidies the rich countries gave to domestic agriculture.

In a dinner meeting, Mr. Jaitley hosted for representatives from 10 developing countries, including China, Brazil, Bangladesh and Nigeria, the Commerce Minister yesterday discussed the important questions of procedure and transparency at the Cancun meeting.

India, along with a number of other countries, has expressed its strong reservations about the draft ministerial declaration that has been transmitted by the head of the WTO General Council in Geneva to the conference.

The Indian position is that this text cannot be the basis for negotiations at Cancun because it does not reflect all the views of the WTO members. The developing countries want to avoid a repetition of the experience at the Doha meeting in 2001, when a similar draft transmitted to the conference in a similar manner became the basis for the ministerial declaration that launched the Doha round. Mr. Jaitley also brought up the issues of procedure at a bilateral meeting he had with Dr. Luis Ern esto Derbez, the Foreign Minister of Mexico, whose role at the Cancun meeting will be crucial because as a Minister from the host country, Dr. Derbez will be the chairperson of the conference.

In the meeting with developing countries, India has also been consolidating the widespread opposition to launching negotiations at Doha on the "new/Singapore" issues of investment, competition rules, customs procedures and transparency in the Government procurement. Mr. Jaitley said that as of now the developing countries remained united on agriculture and the Singapore issues.

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