Global trade deal still on table

By Surojit Gupta  |   2008-8-13  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A new global trade deal is still possible by the end of this year despite last month's collapse of talks, the head of the World Trade Organization said yesterday, as he gauged India's willingness to press on.

Talks ended in July after the United States and India refused to compromise over a proposed safeguard mechanism to enable developing countries to protect poor farmers by raising tariffs to counter a surge in subsidized imports.

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has already said the halt should be treated as a pause rather than a breakdown, and on Monday the world trade body's farm mediator called for negotiations to resume soon.

"The good news is that there may be still a possibility to move this forward, and conclude these negotiations within the time frame which all the WTO members had agreed since last year, that is end-2008," Director-General Pascal Lamy said.

Lamy is visiting Delhi this week and Washington next to get a sense of whether the talks can be resumed.

"I will leave Delhi tomorrow night with some sort of sense where sensitivities, where determination, where political will is and I will do the same exercise in Washington next week," Lamy said.

Nath reiterated his opposition to any attempt to dilute the development content of the Doha round, and urged Lamy to convince the United States to understand New Delhi's sensitivities. "What position we had in Geneva we continue to have today. It's not that in 15 days we have had any revision of our position," Nath said at a news conference with Lamy.