Nath sticks to stand at WTO talks

India has refused to budge from its stated position at the trade talks and asserted that rich nations would have to move first on reducing farm subsidies to break the deadlock at the World Trade Organisation.

"We would like to see an outcome that would enable our economies to grow and not shrink. A level-playing field, especially through significant reduction in agricultural subsidies by developed countries, would be a pre-requisite for market access," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said here.

Nath, who met WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, stressed on India's commitment to a rule-based, non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and said developed countries must move to take the Doha round of trade talks forward.

While Nath did not elaborate on his meeting with Lamy, he made it clear that livelihood security of poor subsistence farmers was not negotiable.

Similarly, in industrial tariffs, the principle of "less than full reciprocity", which means developing countries cutting tariffs to a lesser extent compared to rich nations, was essential to protect small industries in developing countries.

Nath said India would reject demands by the US and the EU of making significant cuts in farm and manufacturing tariffs.

Trade talks are stuck on the contentious issues of reducing farm subsidies and industrial tariffs and a meeting here early this month had failed over disagreements between rich and poor countries on opening up their markets.

Global leaders of the G8 industrialised nations, along with key developing countries like India, China and Brazil, are expected to address the long-delayed trade talks at a meeting later this week in St Petersburg, Russia.