'G20 farm paper may break WTO logjam'

India on Monday said the G20 paper on agriculture negotiations had provided the "starting point" for arriving at a framework agreement for World Trade Organisation negotiations by July-end and sought to break the deadlock in trade negotiations after the collapse of talks in Cancun last September.

"There was a standstill in WTO talks before the G20 meeting in Sao Paulo. The G20 paper, which insists on movement on all three pillars of agriculture negotiations in tandem, has provided the starting point for arriving at a framework," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said at a press conference on his return from Brazil.

The three pillars of agriculture include market access, domestic support and export subsidies.

India has demanded the issues should be taken up in tandem to address the food security and livelihood concerns of developing nations, without which there can be no forward movement.

He said technical teams of the group were currently meeting in Geneva towards further work to capture the progress in the framework discussions, outcome of which is expected by Tuesday.

The negotiations had reached a crucial stage and the forward movement would depend on developed countries taking on board the interests of developing nations, Kamal Nath, who also met leaders of non-group-5 comprising India, Brazil, the US, European Union and Australia, said.

He said there could be no compromise on food security and livelihood concerns as agriculture was the way of life of millions of people in India.

He added that market access did not mean merely reducing tariffs, as perceived in the developed world.

With regard to market access, he said Indian farmers could compete with western farmers but not with western governments, which doled out huge domestic and export subsidies.

Apart from less-than-full reciprocity for developing countries for reduction of tariffs, the G 20 paper stresses on substantial cuts in domestic support and all forms of trade-distorting support.

There was a need to prevent shifting of support from one category to another, Nath said adding "you can't change the parking lot by shifting (subsidies) from one box to another".

"We have also emphasised that all the elements of export subsidies should be eliminated by a credible date across each product," he said.