Chance of an accord in global trade talks suffered another setback following India's Union minister Kamal Nath terated that the country will not compromise on its stand on agriculture market access in the World Trade Organization's Doha round of negotiations.
However, the minister said India will still work to make the Doha round of trade talks successful. Kamal Nath was talking to mediapersons after returning from Potsdam, Germany, where negotiations among four major World Trade Organisation governments collapsed on Thursday.
The collapse of talks has reduced the chances of an agreement on a trade accord. Elections in the US and India also present a threat to future progress if an accord can't be wrapped up before next year.
The failure of four main trading partners to arrive at a consensus is definitely a setback for the trade liberalisation process. Experts said it's not an end of the WTO, but the development means that the trade negotiations will be delayed indefinitely as the main players refuse to arrive at a compromise.
Trade and agriculture ministers from the four governments began what was intended to be almost a week of talks aimed at reaching a breakthrough on slashing farm subsidies and lowering hurdles for goods crossing borders.
The early end of discussions mirrors last July's collapse, when negotiations among the four governments plus Japan and Australia disintegrated, prompting WTO director-general Pascal Lamy to suspend talks.
Negotiators from the US and the European Union said their Indian and Brazilian counterparts offered nothing new to unblock trade talks that have dragged on for almost six years. India and Brazil blamed the US and the European Union's unwillingness to cut farm aid and import duties on commodities.
Kamal Nath said deciding on the terms of an agreement was more important than adhering to a schedule. The bottom line is more important than the deadline. The content of this round is more important than the completion of this round, Nath said. "India has always maintained that the headline of the round is removal of distortions in global trade, represented by the agricultural subsidies given by the developed countries."
However, farmers' organisations in India were a happy lot after the collapse of the trade talks.
