Tuesday, December 13, 2005
WTO:India Talks tough
The WTO talks are underway.A bunch of guys are going to decide the future of million of farmers around the world.The funny thing is that most of the big organizations are well represented by the western countries, but the developing countires are not.
Pascal Lamy
Pascal Lamy, WTO director general is a former trade commissioner for the European Union who took over the WTO post this past fall. As EU trade chief he twice called the WTO "medieval" after the failure of ministerial conferences in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.
Good news is that india is talking tough.Commerce Minister kamal nath said.
No WTO process can isolate India. WTO talks cannot be completed without India on board. We are ready to take the blame if our concerns are not addressed. We are not here to make statement of good intentions in one area and have specificity in another area.
There can be no agreement in dribbles. There has to be specificity in the area of reductions in farm subsidy and market access in agriculture for developing countries.
We want to do what we are supposed to be doing. But what are you (developed countries) going to pay (as subsidies to farmers) is not acceptable," he said, adding Indian agriculture was not ready for subsidised imports.
With the present agrarian crisis happening in india.Lets hope the govt holds it's stands and not budge under pressure.