BHURBAN (PAKISTAN): In an aggressive posture in the run-up to the Hong Kong Ministerial round of WTO negotiations on Agriculture, the G-20 bloc on Saturday served an ultimatum on the industrialised world to either come forward with a concrete plan for phased elimination of farm subsidies or be prepared for the consequences.

At the end of the two-day G-20 Ministerial conference, attended among others by India, China and Brazil, the unambiguous message was that the current policy of heavy farm subsidies by the developed countries would have to change in favour of the poor farmers of the developing countries.

The G-20, representing 80 per cent of the poor and 70 per cent of the global farmers, in its declaration here asserted that the formulations put forth by the grouping for gradual phasing out of farm subsidies were technically solid, politically credible and represented the much needed `middle ground' and it was time the main subsidisers among the developed countries demonstrated `political reform' for a free and fair farm trade regime.

The main focus of the brainstorming session among the Ministers at the retreat earlier in the day was on the future strategy to counter efforts by the rich countries to evade a response to the overwhelming demand for the elimination of farm subsidies. At their joint news conference, where the Ministers shared details of the deliberations of the meeting, the Ministers said the poorer countries were running out of patience with the non-committal response of the rich. At the same time they refrained from elaborating on their strategy to counter it.

Ball in the court of industrialised world

"The ball is in the court of the industrialised world. They have to respond to the G-20 proposals on farm subsidies to make the WTO negotiations at Hong Kong in December meaningful," Brazilian Foreign Minister Salsoluiz Nunes Amoriam told journalists at this hill resort.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who represented India at the conference, said, "With the artificial prices, the market access being sought by the rich countries into the developing countries is not just acceptable. The developmental aspects cannot be overtaken by the ambitions of the developed countries".

The Minister said the Bhurban conference has done well to send out a clear and loud message 13 weeks before the Hong Kong Round to the world in general and the United States and the European Union in particular that their heavy subsidisation of agricultural exports posed a serious challenge to the goal of economic upliftment of farmers in the rest of the world.

"Agriculture negotiations are in a critical situation...The lack of results last July has put the Doha Development Agenda in a critical situation. G-20 proposals constitute a genuine middle ground. They are technically consistent, politically credible and provide basic structure on which to make progress towards consensus," the declaration said.

Stressing that it should be ensured that Least Developing Countries made meaningful gains from reform of each of the three pillars (domestic support, export subsidies and market access), the Ministers expressed their full support for provisions exempting them from any reduction commitments.

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