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Interest of India's farmers will be safeguarded in the ongoing Doha Round of Trade negotiations, the government has said. It also assured no “trade-offs” for gains in other areas of the negotiations.
“In the agriculture negotiations, safeguarding the interests of India's low income and resource poor agricultural producers remains paramount for us and this cannot be traded off against any gains elsewhere in the negotiations,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.
WTO talks are yet to be concluded as both the developing and developed countries have not resolved differences on farm subsidies and market access for industrial goods.
“Our defensive concerns in agriculture are mainly in the market access pillar of the negotiations which deals with tariff cuts. We are clear that we will not take an overall cut of more that 36% in our bound rates,” Nath said.
He said talks are at a crucial stage, as chairs of the negotiating groups may come out with revised draft proposals on agriculture and NAMA early this month. This could be followed by a Ministerial Meeting by May-end.
The issue of Special Products is critical to the livelihood of India's subsistence farmers and food security and the final outcome “must be to our full satisfaction”.
India is interested in taking negotiations on services forward as the sector is a major driver of the country's economic growth and provides huge employment opportunities. (Source: Hindu)
May 2, 2008
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