India asks US to cut farm subsidies by one dollar

"My offer to the US is that they should reduce their subsidy by just one dollar and we have a deal," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said here yesterday at a conference on globalisation, organised by Ficci and University of Oxford.     

But the US has not been forthcoming, Nath said. "They (US) say: forget about reducing the subsidy even by a single dollar, we want to have a right to double it in the next 10 years," he said.     

He said the British leadership, both in the government and academia, should try and influence the US administration to be reasonable and agree for removal of "structural flaws" that have marked the World Trade Organisation for the last 13 years.     

Nath arrived in UK from the US where he had several meetings, including the one with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. While, he said there was progress in talks, the US has accused India of wrecking the negotiations by "working behind the scenes".     

Nath did not agree that it was India alone which had differences with the US on the issue of farm subsidies, livelihood concerns and opening market for industrial products.     

"There is no question of India destroying any deal. There are 100 other countries which share most of our concerns," he said.