India ups the ante, Doha failure haunts Cancun

 With battle lines drawn between the developed and the developing countries for the fifth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial beginning tomorrow in Cancun, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley appears all set to toe the tough stance taken by his predecessor, Murasoli Maran, at Doha.

 In his very first round of one-to-one bilateral talks with US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, Jaitley went on the offensive and told them that heavy domestic support and export subsidies in the US and the EU were hurting Indian farmers.

 During the meetings, Jaitley also sought greater flexibility in the proposal for tariff elimination in certain sectors.

 The commerce minister has made it clear that he will continue to block the issues and officials in his team have gone to the extent of saying that India will not change its stance even if it is isolated on the subjects