India hardens stand on Doha flexibilties

During the first pre-ministerial green room meeting of select countries on Thursday and Friday and the bilateral meetings between Commerce Minister Kamal Nath with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amroim, a common message was delivered: India is ready to show flexibility to conclude an agreement on the modalities on agriculture and market opening for industrial goods only if its concerns in agriculture, services, and non-agricultural market access (Nama) are satisfactorily addressed, Business Standard has learned.

On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai pointed out the specific problems faced by Indian farmers, and the need for strong treatment for special products and special safeguard mechanism.

Pillai also spoke against the commitments being demanded in Nama from developing countries, arguing that they would actually result in sharp cuts in their applied tariffs.

He said India would not accept the anti-concentration provision, which aims to place a trigger on how the flexibilities to shelter certain sensitive industrial tariff lines would be used by developing countries.

India is also angry that it has not received any encouraging signal on its demands in Mode 1 and Mode 4 from the United States and the European Union during the bilateral meetings. Pillai said India was ready to make concrete offers in services and argued that others must respond to its demands in Mode 1 and Mode 4 at the signalling conference.

Meanwhile, key industrialised countries like the US, EU members and Japan differed sharply with China, India, Brazil and Argentina on what ought to be