G-6 may meet soon to revive WTO talks

In a bid to salvage the collapsed WTO talks, trade ministers of India and the other five key players "" the US, the EU, Brazil, Australia and Japan "" are likely to meet in Geneva shortly.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has been given two weeks to persuade the key players, called the G-6 countries, to make concessions to bring about convergence on the two contentious issues of agriculture and industrial tariffs.

Official sources said if there was a positive development among the G-6, there could be yet another mini-ministerial by the end of this month to push forward the Doha round of trade negotiations.

Sources also said there could be another meeting of some of the top 15-20 countries before the mini-ministerial, if there was progress at the G-6 meeting.

Sharp differences between the developed and developing countries led to the collapse of the Mini-Ministerial in Geneva on Saturday, in which trade ministers of 60 WTO member countries participated.

The Mini-Ministerial failed as the US adopted an adamant stand on cutting down domestic support on agriculture.

This forced the developing countries led by India and Brazil to take a tough stand saying there would be no compromise on agriculture as it was an issue of subsistence and livelihood of poor farmers, sources said.

The sources added that the US held the key to break the impasse because unless Washington climbed down on the issue of cutting down trade-distorting domestic support, there could be no progress.

The US has offered to cut down trade-distorting domestic support on agriculture by 53 per cent but the G-20 group of developing countries, led by India and Brazil, want Washington to agree to a cut of 75 per cent.

In the case of the European Union, the differences on import tariff reduction on farm products have narrowed down as its offer was close to the G-20 proposal of 54 per cent. In its latest offer the EU had agreed to raise the level of import tariff cuts on farm products from 39 per cent to 51 per cent.

On farm import tariffs, the US wants the EU to take a cut of 66 per cent while the European block want to cap the US agricultural subsidies.

The differences between the EU and the US are also holding up the progress of the Doha round. On special products and special safeguard measures to protect domestic farm interests in the developing countries, the trade ministers had sharp differences.

As of now arriving at a convergence in the negotiations looks difficult.