NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday said that India's long-term interests in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) "are best served through steadfast solidarity with developing countries." It asked the UPA Government to uphold this principle during the Geneva Mini-Ministerial meeting.

"From the perspective of developing countries, no deal would be much better than a bad deal," the CPI (M) Polit Bureau said in a statement issued here ahead of the scheduled meeting to finalise the modalities on Agriculture, and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA).

It said the draft modalities on NAMA, presented by chairpersons of negotiating groups on June 22, reflect wide divergences in the negotiating positions of developing and developed countries. The fact that a small group of countries was meeting to negotiate on the modalities, excluding a large number of developing countries, "exposes the undemocratic nature of the negotiations being held currently."

On how developed countries were trying to coerce developing countries on the question of tariff cuts on agricultural and industrial goods, the CPI (M) statement said it raised serious questions regarding the development implications of the Doha Round. "This was noted by the Indian Commerce Minister [Kamal Nath] in his recent letter to the Trade Ministers of WTO member countries."

The party referred to Mr. Nath's statement in the Lok Sabha on December 21, 2005 that one of the key achievements of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration was "the steep cuts in trade, distorting subsidies by the three heaviest subsidisers (the U.S., E.U. and Japan) and the flexibility for developing countries to designate an appropriate number of Special Products (SPs)." Citing the draft modalities on agriculture, the statement, however, noted that the proposed limits of domestic subsidies for developed countries, especially the E.U. and the U.S., were actually higher than their current levels, while ambitious tariff cuts were being pushed for developing countries.

The U.S. proposal on Special Safeguard Mechanisms envisioned its use as a transitional tool to facilitate trade liberalisation rather than an instrument for developing countries to protect their agriculture sector against price fluctuations and import surges.

"India has nothing to gain from the negotiations on agriculture, but much to lose if steep tariff cuts are imposed on agricultural commodities, and the provisions for Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms are diluted considerably. India should, therefore, strengthen the G-33 alliance and ensure that the interests of Indian agriculture are not compromised under any circumstances," the statement said.

On NAMA, it said the proposals were based on the non-linear Swiss formulae for steep tariff cuts on industrial goods. If steep tariff cuts were agreed to, it would have a detrimental impact on the industrial base of developing countries.

"India should, therefore, oppose such proposals... concrete commitments need to be obtained on non-tariff barriers (NTBs) since the developed countries use NTBs rather than tariffs to deny market access to developing countries," the statement added.

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