The Hindu : Business : Industry upset over WTO stand on farm products

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Industry upset over WTO stand on farm products

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Indian industry has expressed concern over the latest communication from the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly on issues relating to Special Products (SPs), domestic support and market access for farm products. (SPs are items that developing countries can exclude from formula cuts agreed upon in the negotiations to address concerns such as food and livelihood security).

In a statement, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said the latest attempt in this direction — the paper circulated by the WTO Agriculture Committee Chairman Crawford Falconer earlier this week — has `lowered the desire' for subsidy reduction by developed countries and limited the scope of SPs for developing countries.

On the issue of domestic support, FICCI noted the lowering of the ambition in reduction of aggregate measure of support (AMS) as compared to the Hong Kong Declaration.

On the issue of SPs, the paper wants five to eight per cent of total agriculture tariff lines to be designated as SPs by developing countries. This is in contrast to the July Framework Agreement and the demand of G-33. The former wanted developing countries to have the flexibility to designate an appropriate number of products as SPs based on considerations of food and livelihood security.

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