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Amid tense moments, the nine-day WTO talks collapsed on July 29 as India and China refused to come under the US pressure to yield on the issue of giving safeguards to farmers against surge in imports.
"There is no use beating about the bush. This meeting has collapsed," WTO chief Pascal Lamy said.
While India and China, the two fastest growing economies in the world, insisted on sufficient protection for their vulnerable farmers, the US facing an economic downturn was not ready for a deal.
Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath expressed dissatisfaction over the collapse of the talks. "I feel disappointed that this has to be the end result. We have been running the miles for the last three years. It is unfortunate that in a development round we could not move because of the issue of livelihood security. The G-33 and the developing countries are concerned about the issues which affect the poor and subsistence farmers," he said.
"My confidence in the institution of WTO remains intact. All work that has been put in will remain intact and we will take this up and move forward," Nath added.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said, "It is unbelievable that we failed on one issue. It is not that the issue is not important for some countries but we could have taken up other issues also this was a collective failure and we should change the players in the team."
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said that talks were a "collective failure". "It is a real setback for the global economy at a time when we were expecting some good news. Negotiations have been long and complex but they were always at the risk," he said.
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said: "We thought we had a deal on Friday and we were very optimistic. US is not prepared to give up on the multilateral system. US continues to extend its support to the WTO and we will stand by our offers. We hope to find ourselves in a negotiating setting and there will be more ambition on the table." (Source: The Hindu)
July 30, 2008
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