Ahead of the release of fresh WTO proposals, India has conveyed to the agricultural negotiating group in Geneva that chances of a Doha deal will become bleak if the US has its way on scaling down protection to farmers in developing countries.
"It will become clear in the next few days whether the US and other developed countries are serious to conclude the Doha negotiations, which have dragged for seven long years," a senior commerce ministry official told PTI.
Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Agriculture Crawford Falconer has concluded three-month old official-level discussions with a large number of WTO member countries and is expected to release the fresh draft in the next few days.
India along with other members of the G-33 (a group of countries with protective interest) is apprehensive of the US exerting pressure on the negotiating group to cut the number of Special Products, on which the developing countries are allowed to remain non-committal in duty reduction.
While the last negotiating text released in February this year had proposed that between 12-20 per cent of the total agriculture items can be designated as SPs, the US along with eight other exporting countries have suddenly brought in a proposal of restricting the protection level to 8 per cent.
"This is a bogus proposal and is totally unacceptable. They (the US) themselves come out with hot balloons and then have the audacity to point fingers at India, Brazil and China that we are not being constructive," the official said.
He said India's 'loud and clear' message was also conveyed to US Trade Representative Susan Schwab by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath at their last meetings in New York on May 7 and 8.
The US has roped in other agricultural exporting countries like Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Paraguay, Thailand and Uruguay floating the proposal for restricting the Special Products to 8 per cent of the total number of tariff lines.
Besides the move of the exporting nations to restrict the level of protection to agricultural products, Indian negotiators 'can see through the designs of the developed countries' to curtail freedom of developing nations to self-designate the SPs.
The official said while the US and the European Union want freedom to decide on the products they want to protect, a pressure is being put on the developing countries to be upfront with naming the SPs.
The Doha Round of talks for a global trade deal was launched in 2001 with the mandate for completion by end of 2004.
However, seven years into the negotiations, developed and developing countries are yet to iron out differences over reduction in farm subsidies and enhanced market access for industrial goods.
