India asks US to cut subsidy by $1 to kick off WTO negotiations
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17/06/2008
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Times Of India (New Delhi)
India has asked the US to cut farm subsidies by just one dollar and New Delhi will come on board for a deal on the Doha Round of trade talks which has dragged for seven years. "My offer to the US is that they should reduce their subsidy by just one dollar and we have a deal," commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on Monday at a conference on globalization, organised by Ficci and University of Oxford." But the US has not been forthcoming," Nath said. "They say, forget about reducing subsidy even by a single dollar, we want to have a right to double it in the next 10 years," he added. Nath further said the British leadership, both in the government and academia, should try and influence the US administration to be reasonable and agree for removal of "structural flaws" that have marked the World Trade Organisation for last 13 years. Nath arrived in UK from the US where he had several meetings, including the one with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. While, he said that there was progress in talks, the US has accused India of wrecking the negotiations by "working behind the scenes". Nath did not agree that it was India alone which had differences with the US on the issue of farm subsidies, livelihood concerns and opening market for industrial products. "There is no question of India destroying any deal. There are 100 other countries which share most of our concerns," he said. India and several other developing nations, including Brazil, Mexico and South Africa have rejected latest proposals put forward by chairs of WTO negotiating groups on agriculture and industrial products. While differences have been narrowed in agriculture, crucial issue of livelihood concerns for poor farmers remains a sticky area. PTI US has not been forthcoming, says Kamal Nath