Interviews
Shri Nath responds on revised Agriculture & NAMA texts
23 May '08
5 min read
On other market access issues in agriculture, the Minister noted the palpable lack of balance between agriculture and NAMA, as reflected in the extremely tentative proposal on tariff simplification and the non-existence of any proposal on tariff capping, despite near unanimous support of the developing countries and some developed countries for such proposals.
He said “Many developed countries are intent on using compound, mixed and complex tariffs as an additional and non-transparent layer of protection. They are also not willing to accept caps on their agricultural tariffs even at levels of 100%-150% at the end of the Doha Round, while expecting developing countries to convert all industrial tariffs in ad valorem terms cap these at the level of 26% or below for almost all products.” This imbalance was out of sync with the Hong Kong Ministerial declaration.
On the global food scenario and the linkage with subsidies in developed countries, the Minister emphasised, “Developing countries have no alternative but to produce more food in the coming years.
Trade distorting subsidies in agriculture have to be reduced much faster than proposed currently so as to send the right signals to developing country farmers.”
He added, “While the Trade Ministers of major developed nations have recently spoken of ameliorating the food crisis through accelerated reduction of domestic subsidies and agricultural tariffs in the Doha round, there has been a studied reluctance on their part to get these recent promises converted into concrete proposals in the draft text.”
NAMA:
On NAMA, Shri Kamal Nath observed: “The text has ignored the core mandate of the Doha Round of less than full reciprocity in reduction commitments and comparability in ambition between NAMA and Agriculture.”
Equity and balance in this Development-oriented Round could only be achieved if developed countries agreed to take a coefficient that resulted in a cut of 49% to 51% on their dutiable lines with developing countries choosing coefficients to take lesser cuts.
On the proposal to link coefficients to flexibilities, the Minister emphatically stated that this was beyond the mandates since the two were different modalities intended to address different objectives.
He added that the number and trade limitations on flexibilities simply ignore the realities and sensitivities in developing countries.
Criticising the proposal to make sectoral initiatives mandatory by linking them to a higher coefficient, Shri Nath observed, “This is nothing but a blatant violation of the mandate.
By unduly pressuring developing countries to enter into sectorals, the Chair has given in to the demand of a handful of developed countries”.
Shri Nath noted the sharp increase in the number of square brackets in the NAMA text. He said this text would have to be completely revised and significant convergence achieved before taking the matter for deliberation at the Ministerial level.
The Minister indicated clearly that “India is ready for a Ministerial meeting. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to narrow differences and converge before identifying a safe landing zone”.
The Minister added that technical discussions on both texts would start from next week and hard negotiations lie ahead. This would have to be followed by engagement at the Senior Officials' (Chief Negotiators) level to suitably prepare a text which could be taken up for Ministerial consideration.
He said “Many developed countries are intent on using compound, mixed and complex tariffs as an additional and non-transparent layer of protection. They are also not willing to accept caps on their agricultural tariffs even at levels of 100%-150% at the end of the Doha Round, while expecting developing countries to convert all industrial tariffs in ad valorem terms cap these at the level of 26% or below for almost all products.” This imbalance was out of sync with the Hong Kong Ministerial declaration.
On the global food scenario and the linkage with subsidies in developed countries, the Minister emphasised, “Developing countries have no alternative but to produce more food in the coming years.
Trade distorting subsidies in agriculture have to be reduced much faster than proposed currently so as to send the right signals to developing country farmers.”
He added, “While the Trade Ministers of major developed nations have recently spoken of ameliorating the food crisis through accelerated reduction of domestic subsidies and agricultural tariffs in the Doha round, there has been a studied reluctance on their part to get these recent promises converted into concrete proposals in the draft text.”
NAMA:
On NAMA, Shri Kamal Nath observed: “The text has ignored the core mandate of the Doha Round of less than full reciprocity in reduction commitments and comparability in ambition between NAMA and Agriculture.”
Equity and balance in this Development-oriented Round could only be achieved if developed countries agreed to take a coefficient that resulted in a cut of 49% to 51% on their dutiable lines with developing countries choosing coefficients to take lesser cuts.
On the proposal to link coefficients to flexibilities, the Minister emphatically stated that this was beyond the mandates since the two were different modalities intended to address different objectives.
He added that the number and trade limitations on flexibilities simply ignore the realities and sensitivities in developing countries.
Criticising the proposal to make sectoral initiatives mandatory by linking them to a higher coefficient, Shri Nath observed, “This is nothing but a blatant violation of the mandate.
By unduly pressuring developing countries to enter into sectorals, the Chair has given in to the demand of a handful of developed countries”.
Shri Nath noted the sharp increase in the number of square brackets in the NAMA text. He said this text would have to be completely revised and significant convergence achieved before taking the matter for deliberation at the Ministerial level.
The Minister indicated clearly that “India is ready for a Ministerial meeting. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to narrow differences and converge before identifying a safe landing zone”.
The Minister added that technical discussions on both texts would start from next week and hard negotiations lie ahead. This would have to be followed by engagement at the Senior Officials' (Chief Negotiators) level to suitably prepare a text which could be taken up for Ministerial consideration.
Press Information Bureau Government of India
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