Rajnath meets farm ministers

 Singh is in Rome for the annual meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

 Singh met the Agriculture Commissioner of the European Union to apprise him of the trade and livelihood concerns of India and other developing countries.

 Singh argued that the provisions contained in the AoA left a huge gap between expectations and achievements. The imbalances in the accord could be removed only by striking a balance between the provisions for market access, domestic support and export competition, he said.

 Developed countries were yet to demonstrate their sincerity in ushering in meaningful reforms in their own domestic support and export subsidy programmes. This amounted to paying mere lip service to the reform process, Singh said.

 According to an official press note issued here, the agriculture minister also held discussions with the agriculture ministers of New Zealand, Sweden, Finland and Japan.

 He also addressed a round-table meeting, attended by some 60 countries, on WTO-related agricultural issues.

 He regretted that the draft agreement floated at the failed WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun was not in consonance with the Doha mandate on farm trade reforms.

 The initiative to put the negotiation process back on track should come from the developed countries. The negotiations needed to recognize the fact that a level playing field could not be created without addressing the concerns of developing countries, he said.