By KUNA,
Geneva : India’s Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said that he was leaving Geneva with a very heavy heart over the Doha Development Round deadlock, concerning the livelihood security of one billion people from all countries.
He urged World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal to treat this as a pause not a breakdown, and to keep on the table what was there because what was at stake were many benefits to Africa and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
“We must not allow those benefits to filter away,” he added.
In a news conference today, Nath said he represented a country of 300 million people living on less than one dollar a day, and 700 million people less than two dollars a day.
Nath added that it was a deadlock concerning the livelihood security of one billion people from all countries of the world.
“The livelihood security and the vulnerability of the poor farmers cannot be traded for the commercial interests of developed countries,” he stressed.
Nath was commenting on the collapse of the trade talks on the Doha Development Round (DDR) which took place Tuesday.
The US went on record in the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) on Monday to blame India and China for the deadlock in the talks.