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Reject revised drafts for world trade talks: CPI(M)

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday asked the Centre to reject the revised drafts for world trade talks and not yield further in agriculture and non-agriculture market access (NAMA) texts in the upcoming WTO mini-Ministerial meeting at Geneva.

Demanding a detailed discussion on the issue in Parliament, the CPI-M Polit Bureau in a statement said: “India stands to lose immensely from the proposals on the table (for the five-day mini-Ministerial meeting starting on July 21).”

Stating that two texts on agriculture and NAMA will form the basis of the negotiations being held to push ahead with the Doha Round of negotiations, it said: “These texts reflect the efforts of the advanced countries led by the U.S. to tilt the outcome of the Doha Round, which was supposed to be a ‘development’ round, decisively against the interest of the developing countries.”

Referring to the revised text on agriculture, the CPI-M said it required the developing nations, including India, to reduce tariffs on agriculture products by 36 per cent, which, if agreed upon, would harm the interests of the small and marginal farmers. In India, out of the 715 tariff lines in agriculture, only 8 per cent on tariff lines will be eligible to be treated as ‘special products’ out of which only 3.2 per cent of the tariff lines will be subject to no tariff cuts and 4.8 per cent of tariff lines will be subject to an average cut of 15 per cent.

“Considering the multiplicity of India’s agriculture product range and the crucial importance of these products for the livelihood of a vast majority of Indians, the range of protection available under ‘special products’ is too narrow and too weak. The Special Safeguard Mechanism envisaged in the text is also too restrictive and ineffectual.” Similarly, the NAMA text proposes huge cuts in the bound tariff levels of the developing nations.

Targeting the Bush administration, the CPI-M said it does not have the authority from the U.S. Congress any more to conclude the current WTO negotiations in a credible manner, with the ‘fast-track’ authority having lapsed in July 2007. “The U.S. Congress has also enacted the Farms Act in May 2008, which further increases the agriculture subsidies in the U.S., overriding the veto of the U.S. President. The U.S. negotiators at the WTO do not have any credibility left after this,” statement said.

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Reject revised drafts for world trade talks: CPI(M)

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