India has walked out of World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial meet being held in Geneva.The meet has been called to thrash out agriculture and industrial tariff issues, with the United States refusing to agree for wider cuts in farm subsidies.Union commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said: "I am going home. There is no need to pretend that this round of talks is not a failure (as the WTO members failed to reach any agreement).""We came here to negotiate, but there is no space for negotiations. We are on 8 to 9% growth. I've come here looking for a trade deal which helps me to reach 10 to 11%," Nath said. "I haven't come here to get a trade deal which makes me go to 4 or 5%."What is being offered "might be free trade but it is not fair trade." Agriculture is the most controversial issue and it difficult to see how the WTO mini-ministerial could make any progress without India, Kamal Nath said. 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.
