"They (EU) tried to raise the issue in WTO. But it was more of a hot balloon which we shot down," a senior commerce ministry official said on his return from Geneva where he had gone for trade talks under the Doha Round of WTO.
The government had announced a bank loan waiver of Rs 60,000 crore to farmers whose landholding was limited to two hectares. The relief included both the principal and interest accrued to nationalised banks and the burden was to be borne by the government.
While the WTO Agreement on Agriculture allows support to small and marginal farmers in terms of waiver of the principal loan amount, there was a grey area on interest relief, which the EU tried to exploit.
"But we said it should be seen in the context of helping the poor farmers," the official said, adding that the EU's "futile" efforts did not yield them much results.