Nath to meet Left parties on stance at WTO

The draft note, which is yet to be finalized, says that ‘‘India should demand reduction in total producer support to agriculture in the US and EU in return for any concession that developing countries may offer.’’

The Left parties noted that India’s abandonment of the role of articulating the developing world’s interests ‘‘was a key reason for the incorporation of several iniquitous provisions in the WTO agreement that clearly favoured the developed countries.’’

The note further states that India’s joining the ‘Five Interested Parties’ (FIPS) Forum and its role in reaching a consensus — known as the ’July framework’ — in 2004, was a reversal of India’s commitment to speak on behalf of developing countries. Nath is attending a FIPS meeting today after the ministerial meetings of the G-20 and the G-33 groups in Zurich.

‘‘We would like to reiterate that India’s long-term interests are best served by making a common cause with developing countries, rather than by building opportunistic alliances for illusory short-term gains,’’ the draft note said.

The note deals with four aspects of agriculture, services, non-agriculture market awareness (NAMA) and trade- related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).

The note suggests that the government should emphasise that the outcome of the agreement on agriculture be re-examined in view of the promise that benefits would accrue to developing nations, before finalizing the next phase of liberalisation.

Stating that the ‘July Framework’ gave developed countries the latitude to dole out heavy subsidies to the farm sector, the note argued that India should re-emphasise the need for developed countries to eliminate the billions of dollars of subsidies provided to their farmers.

This is not the first time the Left has raised agriculture-related WTO issues with the government. Earlier in June, when the Left and the Congress fell out over the issue of disinvestment in BHEL, the communists had submitted 14 points related to opening of the agricultural sector under the WTO pact to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Nath is to meet the Left to explain the government’s stance. Sources say the meeting will ‘hopefully’ happen next week.

‘‘The Left parties are yet to conclude discussions among themselves and finalise their position. Their meeting with the commerce minister will be firmed up when they are ready,’’ an official said.

Nath scores two for India

In Zurich, in the meeting of the FIPS, Kamal Nath safeguarded India’s market access concerns in the area of agriculture and rejected outright the two tariff reduction formulae proposed by the US and Australia and by the European Union which would have been detrimental to the interests of developing countries. The burying of both ‘progressivity’ and ‘pivot’ in the market access negotiations is seen as a significant strategic victory for developing countries in the agriculture market access negotiations in the WTO.