No headway

The New Delhi ministerial meet of the G-20 group of developing countries may not have achieved much in terms of pushing global trade talks forward, but it has succeeded in keeping eyes focused on the main issue of farm subsidies in the rich countries.

Indeed, this is the issue that brought the G-20 together and which keeps them together""since the developed countries have done precious little to curb hand-outs to their farmers and agro-goods exporters, despite past commitments on the subject. All the indications are that the European Union is now digging in its heels on the issue, so there is now the real danger that the Doha round of trade negotiations will run aground.

On agricultural subsidies, there has been backsliding rather than movement forward. Some countries have reintroduced or increased these subsidies. Brussels, for instance, brought back its wheat subsidies last month after a one-and-a-half-year gap that was used to prune its grain stockpile.

The G-20, therefore, rightly chose to lay the maximum emphasis on removing farm export subsidies in the next five years, but without specifying when in its view the clock should starting ticking. Going further, the Group demanded that targets and time frames be fixed for eliminating other trade-distorting subsidies.

That apart, the Group made it clear that other benign looking payments, such as for research and development, should not be used by the developed countries as a device for tacitly subsidising their farmers. The message, in short, was that financial support doled out through all the "Boxes"""amber, green, and blue ""should be slashed and not merely shifted from one box to another.

The G-20 meet also reiterated its demand for a further liberalisation of farm imports on the principles of progressivity, proportionality, and flexibility. On this count, since the slashing of bound rates on farm goods is a must, the Group reasserted its known position that the onus of duty cuts must be comparatively light on the developing countries.

Besides, these countries should be allowed to clamp safeguards against any spurt in imports that might subvert the food and livelihood security of poor farmers.

The contentious issue of market access was not really taken up at the meet, but non-agricultural issues in the global trade talks, such as industrial tariff cuts, were allowed to creep in. Many countries have different and even conflicting interests on such subjects, so if Group cohesion is to be sustained, it had better be a focused approach.

The G-20 was constituted essentially to take up the cause of agriculture where the interests of all the members converge on common goals. Any dilution of goals may threaten the Group's basic strength that emanates from its unity against common challenges and threats.