"What the US had proposed last month are not real cuts, it would still allow them to raise trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers. The real cuts would be when there is decline in the support provided by the US Treasury," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said at the Indo-US Economic Summit in New Delhi.
He said the contentious issues in agricultural trade in WTO also included differences in perception of what India and US consider as trade-distorting support and what is allowed under the Green Box, which is not distorting trade.
The US was using some measures in the Green Box that should instead be a part of the Amber Box, which are the most trade-distorting in nature and must be phased out, he said.
However, the US maintained that its proposal presented to the WTO on October 10 offered "real cuts" in subsidies and talks are stuck because of the "disappointing" offer from EU.
"We had presented a bold and ambitious proposal last month, which envisaged substantial reductions in domestic subsidies and elimination of export subsidies. But the EU's proposal of October 28 has been very disappointing," J B Penn, under secretary, US department of agriculture, said.
He said the level of ambition in the EU proposal falls much short of Doha mandate and its market access cuts did not fall between the US and the G-20 proposals.
"The world is now looking at EU to come up with improved proposals... so that the Doha round could move forward," Penn said.
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