G-20 stay firm on cuts in agri-subsidies by developed countries

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) A week before meeting of four key members of World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Postdam in Germany, a group of developing and emerging nations (G20) remained firm on their stand for cuts in agriculture subsidies by the developed countries to break deadlock in the world trade talks.

India, Brazil, the European Union and the United States will meet in the German town next week to break the deadlock in the Doha Round of talks since July 2006.

While taking stock of the latest offers on agriculture subsidies and market access tabled by the United States and the Euorpean Union in Geneva yesterday, the G-20 meeting said, ''Tthere was hardly any movement in their (the US and the EU) positions from July 2006, when the Doha Round talks had to be suspended because of an impasse on these issues.'' Reportedly, the Bush administration has not budged from its stand on farm subsidies since October 2005 when it had offered to cap them at 22 billion dollars annually.

However, developing countries have been demanding halving these subsidies, if the developed world wanted to salvage a new global trade deal by the year-end.

Reiterating commitment to their proposal of seeking effective and substantial cuts in the agriculture subsidies by the developed countries, the G-20 said their ambitious offer to accept the principle of two-third overall proportionality in tariff cuts should be met with an equally ambitious one from the developed countries.

Members of G-20 said while the developed countries were very ambitious in seeking a drastic reduction in tariffs on industrial products (non-agricultural market access or NAMA) in the developing countries, they were reluctant to follow the same principle for agricultural products in their own countries.

This, G-20 added, was leading to a palpable imbalance between agriculture and NAMA, which was contrary to the Doha Round mandate.

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