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| Though both the ministries broadly agree that the interests of Indian farmers should be safeguarded, there is divergence of opinion on how much ground India should be willing to concede on contentious, yet crucial, issues of market access and tariff reduction, among others.
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| A meeting between Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley and Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh at the latter's residence has failed to resolve the stand-off.
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| Secretaries in the two ministries were also present at the meeting that lasted nearly two hours. A meeting of the group of ministers on the WTO, headed by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is also proposed to be held in a few days to finalise the country's official stand.
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| Though considerable spadework had been done on evolving a consensus on agriculture- related issues, the situation has changed with the recent agreement between the US and the European Union(EU) on liberalising global farm trade.
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| With this accord, the world's two major trading blocks have managed to deflect the attention from subsidy reduction to steep tariff cuts as a means for ensuring greater market access for their farm products.
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| The agriculture minister, in the meeting with Jaitley, is understood to have struck to the ministry's avowed stand that there is no question of making any more concessions on market access.
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| Singh maintained that whatever was agreed to at the Uruguay Round of discussions in 1995 was enough and there was no room for further concessions.
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| He did not share the commerce ministry's view of displaying some flexibility in approach to allow the negotiations to move further. This would be detrimental to the interests of local producers, Singh asserted.
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| On the issue of tariff cuts too, the agriculture ministry is firm in its stand that the tariff cuts committed in the Uruguay Round should not be diluted further despite increased pressure from the US and the EU to do so.
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| The commerce ministry is understood to be willing to negotiate on bindings, if not on actual tariffs, but the agriculture ministry feels that even that might not suit the Indian farmers.
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| The agriculture ministry also wants that the country's case for special protection to items like Basmati rice and Darjeeling tea should be pleaded more forcefully.
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| Besides, Krishi Bhawan is keen that India should demand reduction in domestic farm support and export subsidies being provided by the developed countries.
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| The US and the EU are the biggest subsidisers and are not too willing to commit concessions on this front. The developing countries like India, on the other hand, cannot afford to match their subsidies to ensure a level playing field for their farmers.
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| However, on this issue, India is expected to get the support of the Cairns groups comprising countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which do not subsidise their agriculture.
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| The recent US-EU accord on agricultural trade has talked about reductions in such subsidies but without laying down any targets or deadlines for implementation.
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| Besides, it has tacitly sought even to link the subsidy reduction with tariff cuts, further compounding the confusion on these issues and making it difficult for India and other developing countries to go along with them. |
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