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Textile deadlock may scupper WTO talks: India

Refusal by the United States and other rich countries to provide increased access for developing-country textile imports could block agreement on launching new world trade talks, Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran said on Monday.

"There's still a deadlock and it could be a deal-breaker," Maran told reporters on the penultimate day of a five-day meeting of the 142-member World Trade Organisation in Qatar.

India and other developing countries would like the United States, the European Union and Canada to move up the schedule of increasing textile import quotas that was agreed in the 1994 Uruguay Round of trade liberalisation measures.

However, rich countries says that request can be accommodated only through new negotiations and not be granted as a downpayment for getting talks started.

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