WTO talks deadlocked

NEW DELHI: The mini-ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) collapsed on Saturday — two days before its scheduled closure — with key members from developed and developing countries failing to arrive at a compromise formula on liberalising markets for agriculture and industrial goods.

While commerce & industry minister Kamal Nath candidly stated at a press meet on Saturday that there was no use pretending that the meet had not failed and he planned to return home, newly-appointed US trade representative Susan Schwab said that while there was a current impasse, the round was not dead.

The meeting, which was supposed to draw the roadmap for bringing down agriculture subsidies and import tariffs of both agriculture and industrial goods, failed to produce results as members showed limited flexibility in moving from their positions held before the start of the meet.

The failure of the meet to frame a modalities text for agriculture and non-agriculture market access (Nama) negotiations has put a question mark on the feasibility of conclusion of the on-going Doha round by the end of the year.

The EU, which had initially offered to reduce their agriculture tariffs by 39% as opposed to the G-20 (group of developing countries, including Brazil and India) demand of a 54% cut and US demand of a 64% cut, agreed to step up its offer to 50%.

This was not enough for the US, which refused to undertake additional cuts in its agriculture subsidies. “The US is not in a position to settle for some mediocre version of a trade round that doesn’t deliver real market access and new trade flows,” Ms Schwab said.

India and Brazil, the two important representatives of developing country members, were of the view that it was wrong of developed countries to ask developing members to give greater market access in industrial goods, when they themselves did not have anything substantial to offer. They said that developed countries should not try to move away from the basic objective of the development round which was to give millions of poor economic opportunity.

Zambian trade minister Dipak Patel, the vocal spokesperson for the least developed country (LDC) members, lashed out at the developed countries for their rigid attitude. “We are not here to bend backwards to accommodate more market access for industrialised nations. We are not going to allow ourselves to be blamed for any failure,” he said.