Doha deadlock drives to Delhi

NEW DELHI: India will host a ministerial-level meeting of the G-4 countries, which include the EU, the US, Brazil and India, in an attempt to break the deadlock in the ongoing Doha round of trade talks of the World Trade Organization.

The meeting assumes importance in the wake of the approaching June-end deadline when the trade promotion authority of the US negotiators will lapse. The meeting, to be held on April 11-12, will be attended by EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, US trade representative Susan Schwab, Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim and commerce & industry minister Kamal Nath.

Official sources told ET that while the four countries have held several bilateral meetings over the past few months, it was now important for the countries to meet together. “With time running out, it is important for the four to meet and resolve the tricky issues,” an official said.

The WTO talks had broken down in July 2006 when key member countries failed to agree on the modalities for liberalising the markets for agricultural and industrial goods. The refusal by the US to take on commitments for bringing down its agricultural subsidies was the main reason for the breakdown.

The EU and the G-20 alliance, which includes India and Brazil, want the US to take on commitments to reduce subsidies much below the present levels of $18 billion, but the US has been keen on flexibilities, which will allow it to increase subsidies to $22 billion.

The US, on the other hand, is putting pressure on developing countries such as India and Brazil to commit to steep reductions in tariffs for industrial goods. India has maintained that it would agree to tariff cuts as long as they were two-third of the level committed to by the developed countries.

There is a general belief that if contentious issues are not resolved before June, the US Congress may not renew the government’s trade promotion authority. This will be a huge setback to the negotiations as the US negotiators will then have to seek the approval of the Congress for any concession that they want to make at the WTO.