The Hindu : Business : Progress on agriculture agreement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

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Progress on agriculture agreement

By Sushma Ramachandran

NEW DELHI, JUNE 21. The prospects for a framework agreement on agriculture at the World Trade Organisation took a step forward at Sao Paulo where the Group of 20 developing countries issued a paper after discussions with developed countries. India which is not only a member of the G-20 but also of the Non-Group 5 took a firm line on the need to ensure that all three pillars of the negotiations such as market access and reduction of domestic support and trade distorting export subsidies should move forward "with the same intensity".

Disclosing this here today, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, who returned yesterday from the UNCTAD conference in Brazil, said the talks on agriculture had come to a standstill after the failure of the WTO Cancun ministerial conference.

He said the G-20 paper had now provided the starting point for arriving at the framework agreement for which the deadline is July 27.

He said technical teams of the G-20 were now in Geneva and a response to the proposals was expected by tomorrow in the WTO.

"The negotiations are entering a very crucial phase over the next three weeks," he said As for NG-5 which also held a meeting after that of the G-20, he said the group comprises the European Union, the U.S., Brazil, India and Australia, the five countries considered crucial for a consensus on a framework agreement on agriculture.

Mr. Kamal Nath told newspersons that the G-20 paper insisted on movement on all three pillars of agriculture negotiations in tandem. India, he said, had stressed that this was essential to address the food security and livelihood concerns of developing nations without which there could be no forward movement.

"We are insisting that market access should take into account food security since agriculture is not merely a commercial commodity, it is a way of life in India," he said.

He pointed out that market access primarily meant tariff cuts by India for products from developed countries. But if such products were provided domestic support and export subsidies, these were much cheaper so that these get a double advantage. He said Indian farmers could compete with western farmers but not with western governments.

As for tariff cuts, he said India was willing provided there was less than full reciprocity. In other words, if India and other developing countries cut tariffs by 10 per cent, there should be a 20 per cent reduction in tariffs of developed countries.

On issues raised during talks with developed countries, he said it was pointed out that these countries could not shift trade distorting export subsidies from one category to another.

Referring to the green, blue and amber boxes in the agriculture negotiations, he said developed countries were trying to shift highly trade distorting subsidies of the amber box to the other less trade distorting categories of the blue and green box. He said, "I told them you cannot change your parking lot."

Regarding bilateral talks with the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, he said the U.S. was keen on market access to India especially on some key products but understands this country's special concerns. As for the European Union, he said it had market access problems similar to that of India, but for different reasons.

Asked about concerns of the Left parties on the Congress-led coalition government's policy stance on WTO issues, he said these parties had already declared their support to similar policies of the previous NDA Government. The policy of this government was "no less" than that of the NDA regime, he maintained, and was probably more stringent.

On services, a sensitive issue for this country, he said India was trying to see services gets as much importance as non-agricultural market access and agriculture in the WTO talks. Specifically, the non-information technology sector was being looked at where there were prospects of a "quantum jump" in growth, he felt.

Mr. Kamal Nath said talks had already been held with industry associations on the promotion of these sectors such as health care. Talks have also been held with representatives of the legal profession and chartered accountants regarding the impact of WTO services negotiations on these sectors, he said.

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