India's approach paper for negotiations at World Trade Organisation Ministerial at Cancun in Mexico next month was approved by a Cabinet Committee on Saturday.
With the developed and developing countries taking confrontationist postures on the contentious issue of agriculture, expectations are that Chairman of WTO Agriculture Committee Stuart Harbinson will present a new draft proposal.
India, China and 15 other developing countries have presented a framework for negotiations on agriculture to counter the EU-US proposal, which was heavily loaded in favour of developed countries.
Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting on Friday that the two key issues at Cancun would be agriculture and investment.
Jaitley said three pillars of agriculture negotiations are domestic support or subsidy, export subsidy and market access.
India wanted developed countries to bring down their subsidies and eventually eliminate them and also to ensure a level playing field for developing countries in domestic as well as export markets.
There must also be some cushioning by way of tariff protection for special products in addition to the Special Safeguard Mechanism to protect against price fluctuations and surge in imports.
