India on Friday lashed out at the developed countries for enhancing subsidies to the agriculture sector, apart from high tariffs and trade distorting domestic support and asked them to take immediate corrective steps.
India's agriculture ministry has identified a list of around 80 special products that should get tariff treatment as part of the World Trade Organisation's current Doha Round negotiations.
Al Janoub, a 40,000-seat venue made to resemble the sail of a dhow, or traditional wooden sailboat, was opened last May and is the first to showcase the new cooling system.
The issue of Doha round of WTO talks dominated the discussions as Prime Minister Manmahon Singh met his British counterpart Gordon Brown here and agreed on the need for pushing the stalled negotiations. Brown, while favouring cut in farm subsidies in the US and the Europe, voiced optimism that an agreement could be reached in the global trade talks that have got stuck due to stiff opposition by India and some other developing countries on agriculture subsidies.
The world's top eight industrial nations on Monday ppeared to have climbed down from a tough position on farm subsidies, reviving hopes of resumption of the collasped WTO talks.
The G-20 alliance of developing countries led by India and Brazil is likely to come up with "better" proposals at its meeting in Geneva this week as chances of a global trade deal on WTO's Doha Round brighten. Nath said members of the G-20 wanted to recognise some of the sensitivities of developed countries as long as their own concerns of livelihood and food security are taken on board.
This will be an area where bilateral or regional trade pacts may not be able to perform well.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Highlighting the need to arrive at a "balanced package" at the forthcoming Hong Kong Ministerial, the group of 20 leading economies of the world on Friday
A day after collapse of the G-4 talks, India on Friday said the group's role as a consensus- building mechanism in WTO talks has come to an end and warned the US and EU against trying to divide developing nations.
The United States has offered to cut its agricultural subsidies by 60 per cent over a period of next five years as demanded by the G-20 developing nations and Britain in its bid to revive the Doha round of trade talks.
India believes rich nations should be away from farm subsidies.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
The 19-year-old Indian junior world record holder did not attempt his fifth and final throws due to the injury and his first round effort of 83.80m fetched him a seventh place finish in a strong eight-man field in Zurich on Thursday.
Rafael Nadal will skip the Miami Open that begins later this month in a bid to recover from a back injury in time for the clay court swing
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
India began the year on 97 in FIFA rankings, but after two wins, four draws and seven losses, the country ended 2019 at 108
New Delhi to push for services trade facilitation & food stockpiling.
India's Food Security Act entitles 82 crore people to 5 kg of foodgrains per person a month at Rs 1-3 per kg.
Trump disclosed that he was to meet the Afghan President and senior Taliban leaders on Sunday at his Camp David retreat.
Still, the failure of the agreement should signal a move away from monolithic single undertaking agreements that have defined the body for decades.
Qatar Airways might infuse $200 million in debt and equity in SpiceJet.
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If India does not wish to continually violate the WTO rules, it must also continue to push the WTO to either revisit the reference point of 1986-88 prices for calculating subsidies and pitch it at a recent period, or raise the ceiling on subsidies to enable countries like India to stay within the envisaged cap.
When asked about the possibility of talks getting extended for another day, World Trade Organization spokesperson Keith Rockwell said: "The concept of time is flexible in WTO."
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
'It is unrealistic to expect that security dilemmas and strategic distrust to disappear or even diminish any time soon,' says Rup Narayan Das.
'Any 'de-escalation' that brings down tensions will deprive the BJP of a plank with seamless possibilities to project PM Modi as the 'Iron prime minister' and hype up jingoism in the upcoming election campaign,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
According to the final draft of the negotiating text circulated by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo among trade ministers of the 159 member countries on Wednesday night, on public stockholding for food security purposes, a developing country like India can provide subsidies for farm support even if those exceed the permissible 10 per cent cap.
The WTO has already significantly lowered its sights since a decade of Doha talks broke down, forcing the body to focus on a much less ambitious set of reforms.
Substantial gains can still be made with good policies and initiatives.
In India we have to be careful not to copy any level of dependence on the financial sector and infatuation with the get-rich-quick syndrome, says Jaimini Bhagwati.
What a year Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh and Anirban Lahiri had!
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
This was a very strong position and was criticised by many, both from the developed and developing world.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
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