Sops to developing countries could break the Doha deadlock. IT's another attempt to evolve a JL consensus between the rich and the poor nations at the wto on the thorny issues of cutting agricultural subsidies and industrial tariffs. Ambassador Crawford Falconer, Chairperson of the Agriculture Negotiation, and Non-Agricultural Market Access (nama) Chairperson Don Stephenson have circulated their latest draft "modalities". The two documents are revisions of drafts previously circulated in July 2007 and are based on wto member governments' latest positions in the discussions since September, one of the most intensive periods of negotiations since the Doha Round talks began in 2001. The revised negotiating text for industrial goods seeks to break deadlock on the cuts within the wto by setting no fixed limits for the exceptions that developing countries would enjoy. Clearly, Canada's wro Ambassador, Don Stephenson, who chairs the industry talks and has put forward the suggestion, is hoping this would find favour with the third world, which want industrialised countries to take bigger commitments than developing countries in cutting industrial tariffs based on the principle of "less-than-full reciprocity". There is a broad consensus on how to open up trade in industrial goods, which account for 74 per cent of world trade. Tariff cuts will be based on a formula using a variable or coefficient. The lower the number of the coefficient, the bigger the cut in tariffs, and the lower the resulting tariff ceiling. Stephenson proposed in July a coefficient range of 8-9 for developed countries and 19-23 for developing nations. Several developing countries have called for a bigger gap between the coefficients for rich and poor, but that has been resisted by developed nations. While the latest draft proposals make no change in the coefficient levels, they suggest that the issue could be debated further to reach a middle ground. Industry bodies in India, though, object to the present formula as they feel that it's discriminatory. Says Amit Mitra, Secretary General, ficci: "This set of coefficients, if applied in tariff reduction formula, would result in relatively large tariff cuts for India and other developing members, compared with developed economies like the us and the eu." In the draft on agriculture, an attempt has been made to reflect the concerns of the developing countries, particularly on special safeguard mechanisms and special products. The draft also brings back the original G-20 proposals for discussion that had suggested a minimum 54 per cent cut in agricultural tariff by developed countries and maximum tariff cut of 36 per cent for developing countries