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G. Srinivasan

New Delhi , Aug 14

THE Union Law and Commerce Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, today said the EU-US proposal for farm trade reform under WTO "is not acceptable to India".

India's Ambassador to WTO, Mr K.M. Chandrashekhar, would come out with clarifications on the various elements in the framework agreement, he said.

Details of the framework agreement were yet to pour in. Commerce Ministry officials refused to elaborate other than simply saying "it is a bad patchwork" that did not address the essential concerns of the developing countries.

As per the proposals, a certain range would cut the most trade-distorting supports, while less trade-distorting supports would be capped at 5 per cent of the value of production.

Again, the agreement says some export subsides and credits would be quickly eliminated and others would be reduced significantly over time.

On market access, the framework agreement states that some tariffs would be subject to a Swiss formula for reducing the highest tariffs more than the lower tariffs, which is the US-favoured approach. Other tariffs would be subject to the approach used in the Uruguay Round and favoured by the EU, employing average cuts and minimum cuts.

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