By IANS
New Delhi : The failure of rich nations to accept effective cuts in farm subsidies and yet ask for greater market access for their agriculture produce in the developing world resulted in the recent breakdown of global trade talks in Germany, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said Friday.
"It is the end of the road for G4," Kamal Nath said in an unambiguous tone after attending a meeting with trade ministers of the United States, Brazil and European Union at Potsdam in Germany June 19-21.
"The G4 is no more," he added.
"Agreeing to their demands would have been against the mandate of Doha Round, seriously jeopardised the livelihoods of the farmers of the developing and least developed countries and threatened the food security of many poorer nations."
Kamal Nath, in fact, walked away from the meeting, which was supposed have ended Friday, since it was nowhere near reaching a consensus. The minister also called World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy Friday noon.
This was the second meeting of the G4 trade ministers after India hosted them in New Delhi April 2007 when they had charted out a roadmap for meetings to engage intensively on all important issues relating to the Doha trade talks.
On the issue of industrial tariffs, the rich countries had wanted a formula that would have allowed them to take average cuts of just above 30 percent but made the developing countries reduce theirs by over 60 percent, Kamal Nath said.
"This could only have helped the developed countries to make heavy inroads into the markets of developing countries while offering negligible reciprocal gains to the latter," he said.
"This was totally unacceptable to the developing countries, as it would have led to increasing unemployment among their workforce," he said, adding: "They [developed countries] were talking of prosperity, while I'm protecting the livelihood of millions."
Rich countries also expressed reluctance in reforming the trade defence measures like anti-dumping and countervailing duties, which have often been used unfairly against developing countries to curb their export growth, he said.
"I caution the US and the EU not to create a divide among developing countries."
Kamal Nath said the current negotiations were termed the Doha Development Round and had raised the expectations of the developing world that it would help them tackle their problems of unemployment and poverty.
The Doha Development Round of talks, which began in Doha in 2001 with the aim of giving developing countries a greater stake in global trade, was supposed to have concluded in 2004 but has been marred by increasing intransigence on the part of rich nations – particularly over cutting their mammoth farm subsidies.
"The current aspirations of many developed countries were totally oblivious to the development content of the Doha Round and were instead focused mainly on seeking greater market access for their own products," Nath said.
Nevertheless, the minister said that India, which has been a firm believer in a rules-based multilateral system of trade, would work with other like-minded countries to ensure a successful conclusion of the Doha Round.
"The chances of concluding these talks are good, provided the developed countries recognise the architecture and recognise that trade distortions cannot be there and also understand that every trade agreement must lead to healthy economy."