India to push for fresh WTO talks

India's stand in the post-Cancun scenario would be to push for fresh negotiations. "The expiry of the peace clause in the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture in December this year will enable us to levy countervailing duties on subsidised imports. This could be used as a platform to persuade the developed countries to reconsider their position on talks under the Doha round," R C A Jain, secretary, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, said at a conference.

The European Union's (EU) ambassador to India, Michel Callouet, said, "Failure at Cancun has short-changed the aspirations of the developing countries. They would have experienced a 3.5 per cent growth in income from dynamic gains that accrue from free trade," he said.

S N Menon, special secretary, commerce, said the deadline for the conclusion of the Doha round by the end of next year could be met if the WTO members worked towards closing the gaps in their divergent viewpoints.

He said the main blocks should be able to sort out some of the differences before the next meeting of the General Council, scheduled for December 15, as the sore points are now well known.

Menon said the reason why the Cancun talks collapsed was the non-transparent and non-inclusive nature of the draft texts, Rev 1 (prepared by the General Council) and Rev 2 (prepared by the Chairman of the ministerial conference).

"The G-20 alliance was formed because at the Montreal mini-ministerial, the US and the EU did come together but espoused just their own concerns on the three dominant issues in agriculture (domestic support, market access and export competition), and not that of other developing and Cairns group countries," Menon said.

India's ex-ambassador to the WTO, S Narayanan, said the two draft texts sought to change the Doha mandate on export competition. He said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) extended $ 370-billion support to agriculture annually, while the total exports from developing countries was only half the sum.

Stefano Gatto, counsellor and head of trade and economic affairs, EU, said all the unresolved issues at Cancun, including the Singapore issues, merited a serious reconsideration.

He said the EU was not averse to multilateral trade agreements, but did not consider the bilateral agreements as being against the spirit of the WTO. The EU's future trade relations with India would only be through free trade agreements and not preferential trade agreements, he asserted.

Arjun Sengupta, ex- member secretary, Planning Commission, said that India was one of the most protected countries in the world as two-thirds of the bound tariffs in India were at their peak levels. He added that India should go in for unilateral tariff reductions and persist with them only if the industrial countries reciprocated.

"By 2005, simple average of India's bound tariffs will be 50 per cent with the maximum being 300 per cent. While for China, the figures would be 10 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. Average of applied tariffs on agriculture goods would be 35 per cent, with the maximum being 210 per cent. The comparable figures for China are 19.2 per cent and 71 per cent," Sengupta said.

Textiles secretary S B Mahapatra expressed his concerns over the high protection given to the textiles industry in the international markets. He said that the issue of market access to countries like EU and US would be crucial for Indian textile industry's performance in the world market.