On the eve of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, India on Monday asserted it will not be rushed into a global trade deal that displaces millions of its poor farmers.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath categorically said the government will not accept any deal that compromises the livelihood and food security concerns of farmers and does not give market access for products of its export interest.
Nath, who met leaders of G-20, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his Pakistani counterpart Humayun Akhthar Khan, asked member nations to think and strategise in the context of developing country members of WTO as a whole and underlined the need to remain united during WTO negotiations.
Nath said India wanted the developed world to make specific commitments on farm subsidies.
Agriculture, which forms the core of global trade talks, has hit a deadlock with developing countries wanting developed countries, including the United States and the European Union to make time-bound commitments on phasing-out of their domestic farm support and export subsidies and the latter refusing to improve their offers.
Developing countries want phase out of farm subsidies and provision of Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism to protect livelihood concerns of its farmers.