Cancun draft ignores India's concerns

 World Trade Organisation members are refusing to budge from their positions amidst differences over the contents of the draft ministerial declaration, released on Saturday afternoon.

 Agriculture remained the most contentious area along with the Singapore issues, where the draft proposed negotiations on three of the four issues, leaving only competition policy for further clarifications.

 Indian officials complained about the process adopted in preparing the draft declaration saying the views of the developing countries were not reflected in the document.

 Trade ministers were huddled in negotiations till late at night to break the deadlock as the five-day ministerial meeting was scheduled to end on Sunday. The ministers were trying to agree on a new draft by 3 pm on Sunday.

 Indian officials said there was no question of diluting their position either on Singapore issues or on agriculture. A second draft is expected to be released on Sunday.

 While the US and the European Union complained of developing countries showing lower levels of ambition, largely in providing greater market access for their products, developing countries like India said the draft was an unacceptable basis for negotiations.