India blames US agri MNCs for stalling WTO talks

New Delhi, Aug 10: India today said that the big US Multi-national companies (MNCs) engaged in agricultural business are responsible for holding the Doha Round of WTO talks and the US economy ransom.

''Agriculture contributes less than two per cent to the US GDP, of which 60-70 per cent get no subsidies at all, because most of these go to the commodity groups and politicians that support them. It is these groups that have led to the collapse of the Doha Round,'' Ministry of Commerce and Industry Special Secretary G K Pillai told reporters here at the CII session on the 'Doha Collapse: The Road ahead.' He said that only a few big companies like Cargill get most of the subsidies amounting to billion of dollars, and it is this reason that these companies and politicians that support them are not allowing the US government to bring down the subsidy in agriculture.

When agriculture contributes only two per cent to the US GDP, then why was the country so worried about agriculture, and why was agricultural politics holding the whole American economy ransom, Mr Pillai questioned.

In the US, eight out of nine jobs are created in the services sector, while only less than 1 per cent falls in the agricultural sector.

While stressing on a more realistic approach to tackling negotiations, ''with substantial lowering of ambitions in terms of the agenda and the time-frame needed to reach a consensus,'' Mr Pillai said ''unless the US moves substantially on domestic support and scales down its ambition with regard to market access, it will be difficult to reach a consensus where all parliaments across the world are satisfied and go back with a win-win situation.'' WTO Deputy Director General Harsha V Singh, however, said this Doha Round has a feasible landing zone, meaning a real cut in subsidies and actual increase of trade.

''The landing zone is substantially feasible and politically desirable, but for that, the process of effective engagemet must begin by September this year, and not after the US elections in November.'' He said that bilateral efforts need to be made in the wake of the collapse of the second Doha Round, and India was making such efforts. ''Bilaterals are easier to negotiate in some sense but they also create difficulties. However everyone prefers a multi-lateral trading agreement,'' he said.

UNI