India Blames The U.S. For Collapse Of WTO Talks
Ankit Gupta - All Headline News Staff Writer New Delhi, India (AHN) - India today held Washington responsible for the collapsed WTO mini-ministerial in Geneva and says the United States now held the key for forward movement in trade talks by agreeing to climb down on the contentious farm subsidies. The adamant posturing of the U.S. at the talks, on the issue of trade distorting domestic support and an attempt to re-negotiate the issue of Special Products that gives leverage to developing countries to protect their farmers, "left no negotiating space." According to the Indian commerce Minister Kamal Nath, this virtually isolated the U.S. at the talks and most of the other groups like European Union, Japan and 110 developing countries including India and Brazil decided to leave the meeting. While the EU has broadly agreed to the developing countries' proposal to cut import tariffs on farm products by 51 percent, as against the earlier offer of 39 percent, the U.S. wanted more market access for its products without giving in on the issue of cutting farm subsidies. Nath said it was not only India, but several other countries felt there was no use in continuing with the talks, leading to the collapse of the mini-ministerial.
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