Spearheading the developing countries' fight on the contentious farm issue in the World Trade Organisation talks, India has made it clear that it would not budge from its tough stance on the issue of agricultural market access.
Giving details of the present state of play in the WTO negotiations in agriculture, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath asserted that India has limited flexibility in the area of farm market access in order to protect the interest of rural sector which provided livelihood to 650 million people.
During a bilateral meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amrom, ahead of the UNCTAD meeting at Sao Paulo, Kamal Nath said any framework that is being worked for agriculture negotiations at WTO should adequately address the concerns of member countries on what has come to be known as three pillars of the talks -- elimination of export subsidies, phasing out of domestic support and market access.
Market access alone should not be allowed to overtake the other two pillars which were of vital concern to developing countries.
Brazil is the coordinator of the Group of 20 developing countries (G-20), which was formed ahead of the Cancun Ministerial to counter the unreasonable European Union-United States' farm proposal. Apart from Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Egypt are important members of the group.
