Stage Set For Non-Farm Talks

The week saw some progress on World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on agriculture, with the European Union (EU) agriculture ministers agreeing to delink production from subsidies.

The US showed signs of softening its stand on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and public health.

Officials bracing for the tough negotiating ahead said talks on non-agricultural market access would gather steam once the two issues were resolved.

Like agriculture, the modalities for negotiating non-agricultural market access issues are yet to be finalised. The proposal put forward by the WTO has already raised a few eyebrows.

It is based on a formula which seeks to put in place a tariff reduction mechanism factoring in the current rates of tariffs, which are to be multiplied by a co-efficient.

Trade experts say the co-efficient for developing countries and developed ones will be different, with the one for the advanced countries on the lower side, meaning that they will have to cut tariffs by a higher margin.

Tariffs are proposed to be reduced in three phases over 15 years, with India planning to ask for a 20-year implementation period for developing countries.

These countries are proposed to be given the flexibility in implementing the reduced tariffs, also keeping 5 per cent of their imports unbound.

In addition, it is proposed that countries remove duties on seven categories of products