A day after collapse of the G-4 talks, India on Friday said the group's role as a consensus- building mechanism in WTO talks has come to an end and warned the US and EU against trying to divide developing nations.
"It is the end of the day for G-4," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on his return from Potsdam in Germany where talks among India, Brazil, EU and US aimed at completing WTO's Doha Round by the end of this year broke on Thursday.
Nath also warned efforts by the US and the EU to create differences among the developing world, which has grouped itself into various formations for protecting their interests in agriculture and industrial goods, would fail.
"I want to caution EU and the US that any effort to divide developing countries will not succeed... India stands firm with the developing countries," he said when asked to comment on US Trade Representative Susan Schwab's remarks that advanced developing countries like India, Brazil and China should open their markets for other developing nations.
Blaming India and Brazil for being rigid, Schwab had said the G4 did not represent all 150 WTO members. Schwab as well as WTO Director General Pascal Lamy have made it clear negotiations would now be held in Geneva as talks among small groupings have not achieved any success.
Nath also said even though a consensus could not emerge among the smaller group of G4, India and Brazil would reach out to the wider membership. Asked if there was still any hope for completing the Doha Round negotiations by year-end, he said the "bottomline is more important than the deadline".
© 2026