NEW DELHI: India has not made any compromise at the Hong Kong Ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It has managed to protect its interests in two crucial areas of agriculture and industry. The concerns of the Left parties are "misplaced," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.

Mr. Kamal Nath, who returned on Monday from the WTO meet, denied charges that India did not support other members of the G-20 coalition of developing countries on the issue of fixing a date for developed countries to end export subsidies.

"This is not true. We fought to the last," he said. It was China, which initially insisted on an end date, and India extended support. The common agriculture policy of the European Union would end in 2013. Consequently, the final declaration said the substantive amount of export subsidies would be eliminated by 2010, while the entire system would have to be dismantled by 2013.

On the concerns raised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that the Government failed to protect the interests of farmers at the meet, he said the fears of the Left were misplaced and he would be meeting them shortly in this regard.

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