India on Monday dismissed as "inadequate" the farm reforms proposed by the European Union under the Common Agricultural Policy and said the developing countries needed adequate tariff protection and special safeguards against import surges.
"We would need comfort levels both in terms of tariff reduction and special safeguard against surge in agri imports, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said, adding the reform of EU's CAP was inadequate.
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He also said agriculture negotiations in the World Trade Organisation were constrained by domestic politics in the United States in Presidential elections next year.
Agriculture negotiations had serious political and social ramifications in India, Jaitely told a national symposium on the Cancun agenda, in New Delhi.
There must be a gradual reduction and eventual elimination of such subsidies as otherwise farmers in the developing countries could not compete with the heavily subsidised farm products of industrialised nations, he said.
