Kamal Nath upholds Agri interests in trade taks

Making a strong pitch for farmers in the recent trade talks among G-4 Ministers, Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, upheld India’s agricultural interests by refusing to compromise on agriculture market access issues which would have adversely affected the livelihood and food security concerns of the farmers.

Participating in the talks amongst the Trade Ministers of G-4 (India, Brazil, EU and the US) in Potsdam (Germany), on the modalities for Doha Round negotiations in the key sectors, Shri Kamal Nath flagged in particular India’s sensitivities in the following core areas:

i) Overall proportionality of 2/3rd in the tariff reduction commitment of developing countries vis-à-vis those taken by developed countries in agricultural products’ market access with thresholds proposed by the G-20.

ii) Determining the appropriateness of the number of Special Products (SPs) that could be self-designated through the application of an agreed list of indicators, which are based on the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development needs. On the treatment of SPs, India has categorically rejected tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and has been supporting the demand for exempting at least some SPs from any tariff cuts of the Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), which constitute more than half of the G-33. (TRQs refers to a trading mechanism which provides for customs duty at a certain rate on imports of a particular good upto a specified quantity (in quota quantity) and at a different rate above that quantity).

iii) A Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) - which has price and import volume triggers applied separately and whose parameters are more flexible than those of the existing special agricultural safeguard which is used mainly by the developed countries.

In industrial tariffs or non-agricultural market access (NAMA), India has made it clear that the tariff reductions by developing countries must be less than those of developed countries, and the choice of the two Swiss coefficients, therefore, must uphold the principle of "Less Than Full Reciprocity" (LTFR).

India has also been emphasising that the US must reduce its overall trade distorting domestic agriculture support to US $ 12.1 billion (as against the US offer of US $ 17 billion). Besides this, India also wants tightening of the Green Box criteria to which developed countries have been shifting the bulk of their domestic support.

Shri Kamal Nath reiterated that the Doha Round was not just about market access and that the development content of the Round must not be lost sight of.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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