HONG KONG: India on Wednesday called for a multilateral trade negotiation process that does not disrupt the growth strategies of developing countries.

Development was not adjunct to the global trading system but intrinsic to every aspect of the ongoing negotiations under the Doha Development Round, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.

Addressing a plenary session of the sixth WTO ministerial conference here, he said trade commitments which had thrown hundreds of millions of people on the edge of subsistence into the chasm of poverty and unemployment could not be supported.

"The ambition of developed countries cannot, and must not, trample on the aspiration of four-fifths of humanity," Mr. Nath said in a tone that symbolised India's leadership status in the group of developing nations.

Stimulus needed

Though developing countries needed the stimulus of external markets and technologies for a push into a higher economic growth trajectory, they could not adopt a single harmonised development strategy in view of their manifold problems and diverse socio-economic contexts. "Each country must choose the path that best suits its own genius," Mr. Nath said.

The Doha mandate was to correct the "development deficit" left by the Uruguay Round. There was a need for the ongoing negotiations here to contribute towards creation of a "rule-based, world order, which not only makes trade free, but also make trade fair."

Mr. Nath pointed out that it was in agriculture that the structure of international trade was most distorted. Many developing nations, enjoying a comparative advantage in the area, were shut out from world markets. Keeping them away was the "complex edifice of protection, built on high tariff walls, domestic and export subsidies and an intricate maze of non-tariff barriers."

While emphasising the need for a level playing field, Mr. Nath said: "Our farmers are quite willing to deal with trade flows but not with an avalanche of subsidy flows from developed countries.

"To secure and ensure the livelihood and food security of millions, an appropriate number of Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms which can be meaningfully and effectively applied is the bedrock of any agricultural outcome in this round." On industrial tariffs or Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), he said market access was not about tariff alone, as non-tariff barriers such as abuse of anti-dumping and technical standards, hindered the market access for developing countries. It does not make sense to the small and medium enterprises in developing countries, providing jobs to hundreds of millions, if the duty on aeroplanes was brought down to zero, while maintaining a 30 per cent duty on leather handbags.

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