The US, along with Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, among others, has insisted that key developing countries like China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina must participate in sectoral tariff elimination talks to bring duties on chemicals and other products to zero.

Washington has repeatedly stated that without an outcome on sectoral tariff elimination soon, it will be difficult to conclude the faltering DDA modalities in agriculture and market-opening for industrials by the end of this year.

World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy has also stepped up his efforts to wrap up the modalities negotiations by the year-end.

Apparently, US President George W Bush wants an agreement on the Doha modalities under his tenure.

In a hurry to conclude the modalities negotiations by the end of the year,  developing countries are being asked to relax their opposition to sectoral tariff elimination, which is a main demand of the US National Alliance of Manufacturers given the comparative advantage its members enjoy in chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. Sectoral tariff elimination would involve countries agreeing to a road map to bring the import duties on agreed products to zero.

In a sharp response to these efforts, the Nama-11 coalition, led by South Africa, issued a strong message today to reaffirm its position that the sectoral tariff elimination is a "supplementary modality" that must be addressed only after members agree on core issues in non-agriculture market access (Nama).

The Nama-11 subtly cautioned the new chair for Nama negotiations, Ambassador Luzius Wasescha, that there should be no compromise language to alter the voluntary status of sectoral negotiations.

"Developing countries will have to first know what is the impact of the core modalities once they are established before they can agree to any negotiations on particular sectors or participate in sectoral talks," South Africa's trade envoy Faizel Ismail told Business Standard.

The Nama-11 seeks to capture the development dimension in the Doha industrials negotiations. It pointed categorically that unless members assess the full impact of core modalities, such as formula and flexibilities on their overall industrial tariffs, they cannot be drawn into any sectoral negotiations at this juncture.

"Therefore, it is important that any compromise language on sectorals must avoid changing the voluntary nature of the mandate on sectorals," he stressed.