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Last Updated: October 30, 2007 11:37 IST
India said on Tuesday global trade negotiators are closer than ever before to conclude the Doha Round of WTO talks, but asserted it will not compromise the interests of its poor farmers to strike a deal.
"Where we are today, it is closer than ever before to closing the Doha Round. In the next two months, I hope we will be able to find some convergence in it," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told industry leaders at a conference organised by US business magazine Fortune in New Delhi.
He said India's main concern was on the issue of agriculture and unless its sensitivities were taken on board, it would not be able to exercise flexibility in other areas.
India, Brazil and other developing countries have been asking rich nations like the US and European Union to cut farm subsidies, while resisting the pressure mounted the developed nations for reducing industrial tariffs. The Doha Round is running way behind schedule as the rich and poor nations have failed to reach a consensus on the controversial issues.
Nath said he was willing to negotiate commerce but not willing to negotiate subsistence farmers and livelihood security. member countries are keen to find convergence at the Round, which can be concluded if sensitivities of the nations in agriculture and industrial products are respected, he said.
His statement found an echo in Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who expressed concerns over the growing tendency among advanced economies to erect non-tariff barriers.
"Even as we find trade barriers being reduced (by rich countries), we also find that new non-tariff barriers are being erected," he said at the Fortune Global Forum on Tuesday.
Referring to the draft texts on agriculture and industrial products circulated at WTO headquarters at Geneva in July, Nath said the papers have started a negotiating process, enabling countries to work out their responses.
"Things have changed in the last two months and there is much more convergence after the papers on agriculture and
industrial products were circulated," he said.
Nath said he has conveyed India's position on agriculture to the US, which is ready to show flexibility in the round.
"The US has conveyed that it will be as flexible as possible. US is taking on board India's concerns and sensitivities on agriculture," Nath said.
Chidambaram also said that for many advanced economies, agriculture is a commercial activity, but in India it is considered a livelihood issue. "We have over 20 million farm families with an average holding of one hectare or 2.5 acre, which hardly have any marketable surplus production," he said.
With globalisation of trade extending to farm sector, "we will have to protect our agriculture, protect our farmers", he said. Globalisation has its own limits, he said, adding there was no country in the world which could produce food for India's needs. A country as large as India must grow its own food and cannot depend on imports, he said.
Nath and Chidambaram's comments came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India remained committed to successful completion of the Doha Round at an early date.
However, he had told CEOs at the Forum on Monday that the development dimension and the concerns of millions of subsistence farmers should be adequately addressed.
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