Members must show flexibility: WTO

NEW DELHI: WTO member countries, whose differences on farm subsidies and market access have held up the Doha round of trade talks, must show flexibility for the negotiations to move forward, the multilateral trading body's deputy director general appealed on Monday.

"As trade negotiations enter the last phase there is reasonably good prospects for a successful conclusion," WTO Deputy Director General Harsha Vardhana Singh said, adding that in any negotiation, everyone has to give in a little "to reach a landing zone".

On India's stand that developed countries must make greater cut in farm subsidies, he said New Delhi's concerns on agriculture were being taken on board.

"India is sitting quite pretty with its main areas of concern having been largely addressed at the ongoing Doha round," he said at a meeting on 'WTO and Doha Negotiations: Closing the Gaps and the Way Forward' organised by FICCI here.

The outcome of the negotiations, which will resume on September 3 in Geneva, would be known later that month or early October, Singh said, adding that "member nations are willing to go forward; there is a convergence of views".

The discussions would be focused mainly on the draft texts on agriculture and industrial tariffs floated by the respective Chairs, he said.

India's concerns have been largely met and the Draft on Agriculture shows sensitivity on the aspect of flexibility. On Non-Agricultural Market Access, the position was "very comfortable" for India and "we are very near the landing zone, which is not very far from the negotiating paper," he said.

He further said the failure of the G4 talks involving India, Brazil, US and EU in Potsdam, Germany has transferred the responsibility of taking the talks to its logical conclusion to the multilateral level.