India's core demands in the Doha agriculture package -- flexible treatment of special farm products and instruments to contain unforeseen imports -- have been properly reflected in the revised draft modalities text issued on Thursday.
But the revised draft text to slash industrial tariffs has failed to take on board the concerns raised by India and other developing countries, with the chair for Doha Non-Agricultural Market Access Ambassador Don Stephenson having retained some of his controversial proposals, trade diplomats have said.
The revised draft text on agriculture would require the United States to reduce its domestic farm subsidies between $13 billion and $16.4 billion and agree to tough disciplines for providing subsidies to its farmers.
Members of the G-20, in which Brazil and India are major players, demanded that the US must agree to bring down its domestic subsidies below $13 billion.
However, developing countries are concerned that their proposals on cutting down industrial tariffs have not been fully incorporated in the revised draft text.
In separate statements on Thursday, India and Argentina said if the Doha negotiations have to be successful, the revised draft must reflect the concerns of "membership" at large.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said the chair's earlier proposals were unbalanced and reflected the concerns of only a small group of developed countries.
In the revised draft issued on Thursday, the chair stuck to his earlier proposal of a coefficient between 19 and 23 to cut industrial tariffs in developing countries and eight and nine for industrialised countries.
In the revised draft, the chair said there were sharp differences among members on these numbers.
Developing countries all along criticised the chair's text on the ground that it altered the level of balance between agriculture and market access for industrials maintaining that they would slash their industrial tariffs by a higher percentage than industrialised countries.
