NAIROBI: The WTO talks entered the fifth day on Saturday even though hectic parlays are on to bridge differences between developed and emerging economies on the issues on Doha Round, reducing farm subsidies and providing protection to poor farmers of developing nations such as India in case of import surge.
The 10th WTO Ministerial was originally scheduled to end last night but developed and developing countries failed to iron out differences on these issues.
“The meeting is still on since last night,” sources said, adding that a small group of countries — India, the US, EU, China and Brazil – are discussing the issues.
The new draft on agriculture and Nairobi Ministerial is expected to be discussed in the meeting of Heads of Delegations at 1100 hours (local time) here.
India has made it clear that it would not compromise the interest of farmers and agri-interest sectors.
It has also asserted to include the public stockholding issue for food security purposes in the preamble of the Nairobi declaration. It also wants that special safeguard mechanism (SSM) should be delinked from market access.
On the other hand, developed countries, including the US, have been vocal on discontinuing with the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).
On Friday, some twitterati blamed India for blocking the talks, while others pointed fingers at the US.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has rejected the allegations against India and said: “India blocking WTO?! Disagree… Need to ensure Indian farmers/Agri interests are safe. Undue haste in pushing select (matters which are) subject of interest (of developed countries) worrying.” –PTI
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