World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy’s claim of convergence over a majority of issues related to the Doha Round of the world trade talks have been debunked by the Indian trade envoys who took part in the recently failed meeting of senior ministers in Geneva.
In a recent visit to India, Lamy had said that out of the 20 “to do” issues, there was convergence on 17. The talks, he said, broke down over the special safeguard mechanism (SSM).
Though not much is known about the 20 issues, officials close to the talks pointed to a draft floated by Lamy during the Geneva meeting. This draft was not accepted by developing countries including India.
“The draft proposal by Lamy was rejected by the ministers in the mini-ministerial. It was then presented before a group of seven ministers, which included Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who even threatened to walk out if it was accepted. Even after that, Lamy took the list back to the ministers. When this was done, Canada said the draft proposals will first have to be cleared by the seven ministers,” said an official.
Sources said though there was comfort level on some proposals, it did not mean there was convergence.
The draft talked of the US cutting the maximum limit of trade-distorting farm subsidies by 70 per cent to $14.5 billion. “Developing countries want the limit to be $13 billion. Latest data show the US gave subsidies worth over $7 billion. Even if our proposal is accepted, the US will be able to give an additional $6 billion in farm subsidies every year,” added the official.
The developing countries also did not agree to the special products proposal. Special products are farm products that will see a lesser level of duty cuts. According to Lamy’s proposal, 12 per cent of total farm tariff lines (nearly 700 for India) can be designated as special products. Moreover, 5 per cent of total farm tariff lines will not see any duty cut. “Developing countries wanted 15 per cent farm tariff lines to be declared as special products,” added the official.
Also Read
The proposals that led to the collapse of the talks related to the SSM. India and other developing countries wanted to invoke the SSM to increase import duties in case of an import surge of 10-15 per cent while major farm exporters like the US wanted the level to be around 40 per cent.
It is evident that countries like India are comfortable with some of the Lamy proposals, but this does not mean that Indian negotiators accepted them. The reason is India as well as other developing and poor nations first want commitments to ensure the livelihood and food security of their farmers.
Points related to Nama in Lamy’s proposal included anti-concentration, sectorals, as well as tariff cuts based on the “Swiss Formula”. Officials said there were no specific commitments from India in this regard.