The Hindu Business Line : Farmers’ interests will not be sacrificed at WTO meeting, says Kamal Nath

New Delhi, June 25 India on Thursday said that it would not budge from its stance on protecting its farmers’ security even as it expressed hope that trading partners would move closer to each other to arrive at some convergence by next month, ahead of the WTO Ministerial meeting from July 21 in Geneva.

“This is the last window, perhaps to close the (Doha) Round. Still, a large number of gaps remain (in global trade talks). We have to do a lot of running. We hope to arrive at some convergence by next month,” Mr Kamal Nath, Commerce and Industry Minister, told reporters here.

Trade Ministers are to meet from July 21 to arrive at a breakthrough in trade talks, which could be delayed for years if a deal is not reached soon. WTO Director General, Mr Pascal Lamy, had on June 24 communicated to Mr Kamal Nath that the WTO Ministerial would be held in Geneva from July 21.

Ahead of the Ministerial, Mr Kamal Nath is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the US, European Union and leaders of different alliances of the developing countries like G-20 and G-33.

Meanwhile, apex industry associations — Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) — have opposed the revised Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) text, released on May 19, in the current form as it sought to restrict the flexibilities for developing countries to protect their sensitive sectors like automobiles, textile among others.

In particular, it has been highlighted, in a letter to the WTO Director-General, that the ‘Anti-concentration’ clause completely disregards the realities and sensitivities of Indian industry. According to the revised NAMA text, developing countries will not be able to protect all their sensitive products in a particular sector/sub-sector from tariff reduction. In simple terms, sensitive tariff lines that would not be subject to tariff reduction cannot be concentrated in one particular sector.

This is called ‘anti-concentration principle’. FICCI is of the view that such provisions have been added at the behest of a few developed countries with a complete disregard to development dimension of Doha Round.

It has been pointed out that small and medium enterprises in certain sensitive sectors are vulnerable to such tariff reductions.

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Farmers’ interests will not be sacrificed at WTO meeting, says Kamal Nath