India urged developed nations on Tuesday to return to the negotiating table to work out a new global trade deal — but only if they are willing to give and not just look for what they can get.
The latest round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, which saw emerging powers such as India, China and Brazil take centre stage, fell apart in July in a potentially devastating blow to millions of the world’s poor.
Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday that ”we must seize the moment, we must not let it pass” to reach agreement in the talks, billed as the ”development round”.
WTO head Pascal Lamy ”has taken it [the talks] to the last mile — it is for everybody to run this last mile”, he told a business audience, adding that India remains committed to a multilateral trading system.
But discussions should only resume if developed nations ”come to the table not looking for what they can get but what they can give”, said Nath, who championed the cause of the world’s subsistence farmers at the Geneva talks.
”It’s a question of attitude — I can’t negotiate attitude, I can’t negotiate mindset,” said Nath.
”Revival of the weakest” and ”not survival of the fittest” must be at the heart of the talks, he said, adding that it is in developed nations’ interest to have healthy developing economies to give them new markets.
Lamy told the same audience that WTO members had appealed to him after the talks collapsed in Geneva not to ”throw in the towel”, saying agreement had ”never been so close”.
If the talks had succeeded, import tariffs worldwide would have fallen by half, or $150-billion annually, out of which developing countries would have got two-thirds of the benefits, Lamy said.
If no deal is reached, United States farm-trade distorting subsidies could hit a massive $48-billion a year from a $14,5-billion cap Washington had offered, he warned.
However, he said he believes there is still a chance of wrapping up the talks by year-end — ”the time frame on which all WTO’s members had agreed” — though he gave no specifics on restarting them.
The Doha round, launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, has repeatedly missed deadlines as WTO members have struggled to strike a deal.
The latest negotiations were abandoned due to a row between India and the US over the so-called special safeguard mechanism allowing nations to impose a special tariff on agricultural goods if imports surge or prices fall.
India and other developing countries wanted the mechanism to kick in at a lower import surge level than proposed to protect their millions of poor farmers.
The US refused to agree to Indian proposals that developing nations should be allowed to boost duties by an additional 25% on farm products if imports surged by 15%. Washington insisted extra duties should be imposed only if imports rose by 40%.
”By the time imports reach that level, my farmers would have committed suicide,” Nath said.
Analysts say it is unlikely India’s government will soften its agricultural tariff stance as 60% of its more than 1,1-billion people rely on farming for a living and their support is crucial at election time.
Elections must be held in India by May 2009 and the embattled Congress-led coalition government is already energetically wooing farmers.
Lamy was slated to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later on Tuesday to sound out India’s views on how to restart the Doha round launched in 2001. He was expected to follow up his India visit with a US trip to get Washington to work toward clinching a deal. — Sapa-AFP