WTO talks appears to head for failure
The crucial WTO mini-ministerial appears to be heading for a failure as India threatened to walk away from the meeting convened to thrash out thorny farm and industrial tariff issues, with the US refusing to agree for wider cuts in farm subsidies.
By PTI |
GENEVA: The crucial WTO mini-ministerial appears to be heading for a failure as India threatened to walk away from the meeting convened to thrash out thorny farm and industrial tariff issues, with the US refusing to agree for wider cuts in farm subsidies.
Trade ministers from about 60 countries began their talks on Thursday to make a last-ditch effort to formulate ways for cutting agricultural subsidies and industrial tariffs in a bid to revive the stalled WTO negotiations after the Hong Kong Ministerial conference in December last year.
The WTO's 149 divided members, who have repeatedly missed their targets for a deal, are under mounting pressure to complete the round by December 2006 as per the deadline fixed in Hong Kong last year.
"I'll ring up my travel agent and get a flight home," curt came the reply from Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath when asked about New Delhi's response if Washington refused to offer deeper cuts on farm subsidies.
European Union Trade Commissioner's spokesman Peter Power said it was "extremely unlikely" to have an agreement this weekend, as the positions were "too far apart" among the G6 countries of US, EU, India, Brazil, Japan and Australia - the key players in trade negotiations.
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Top officials from the G6 met last evening ahead of talks expected to last several days at the Geneva base of WTO, which were called in an effort to revive the organisation's struggling Doha round trade negotiations.Earlier, EU trade chief Peter Mandelson and officials from Brazil and India, pressed the US to offer deeper cuts in its farm subsidies. However, the US countered that EU must move first, by slashing its import duties on farm goods.
Negotiators are still scheduled to go ahead with talks in an effort to break the deadlock over the modalities for cutting trade barriers such as subsidies and customs duties.
The WTO meeting is part of a timetable agreed at the Hong Kong ministerial last year which was meant to steer the Doha round to a conclusion by December 2006.
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Launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, the round was originally meant to end in 2004 and aims to harness trade liberalisation to boost economies of developing countries.But with sharp differences still persisting and rich countries refusing to climb down, a consensus might elude members on working out the modalities on agriculture and industrial goods. Negotiators have already missed the April 30 deadline, set in Hong Kong last year, for finalising ways to cut subsidies and industrial tariffs.
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As the three key players keen to evolve a consensus by July-end to ensure that the Doha round was not derailed, there is every possibility of yet another mini-ministerial here in two weeks from now if the talks do not make any headway, trade experts said.Download
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