Mumbai:
India and the US are due to meet in the third week of
November to sort out their differences over achieving
a global trade accord. Union commerce minister Kamal
Nath announced this in New York, where he is currently
participating in talks with US officials.
During his visit, the revival of the stalled "Doha
Round" of trade talks among the World Trade Organisation
members was discussed between the US and Indian government
representatives.
Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, commerce secretary
Carlos Gutierrez and US trade representative Susan Schwab
raised the issue of disagreement between the WTO member
states with Nath in separate meetings.
Nath said that India would be happy to find ways of
converging its differences with the US and would engage
in a dialogue to resolve the differences. The "basic
difference" between the US and India was on agriculture.
India,
he said, wanted an early resumption of the stalled Doha
Round of WTO talks. He, however, ruled out the opening
of its markets to subsidised agricultural products of
the US.
"Differentiation
needs to be made between commercial farming in the United
States and subsistence farming in India," he said.
India was prepared for negotiations with the US on the
subject but its concerns have to be met, he added.
The
Doha Round of trade talks stalled in July this year
over differences and lack of concessions on agriculture
products that lead to holding up negotiations on industrial
goods and services.
The multilateral trade talks between WTO member states
with the goal of reducing subsidies, tariffs and barriers
to trade had commenced in Doha, Qatar, at the end of
2001.
However,
negotiations have been thwarted by disputes between
rich and poor nations, as well as between the US and
the EU.
The
WTO talks were suspended in July after six key trading
nations – the US, EU, Australia, Japan, Brazil
and India – failed to arrive at an agreement on
reducing farm subsidies by rich nations. The Doha Round
was scheduled to have been completed by the end of this
year.
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