The United States on Wednesday said it wanted India to make a better offer on agriculture to revive the collapsed World Trade Organisation talks but recognised there are certain products linked to food security on which opening up could be gradual.
"We've said we'd like to see a better offer, we'd like to see tariff cuts that really generate new trade flows because right now we've got a trade deficit in agriculture with India, which is a little disconcerting," Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative, Jason Hafemeister said.
The US, a very powerful agriculture exporting country, wants to see its farm products out there globally, and "we'd like to have access to the Indian market. So we're definitely working on them to open up those markets," he said.
Hafemeister said he was encouraged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emphasising on the importance of getting a deal at the WTO.
"Singh did note that there are some sensitive areas for India, and we'll work with them on that. But it's really that spirit of finding a way to make the cuts, to let the trade happen, is where we're headed," Hafemeister said at the Washington Foreign Press Centre.
He maintained that the US has worked quite closely with India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and talked extensively about barriers to American agricultural products in India.
Under the WTO rules India is allowed average bound tariff in agriculture of 114 per cent. But the applied tariff -- that is what is actually charged averaged only 35 per cent. India has proposed to cut average bound tariff to 70 per cent, which needed to be improved, he said.
The top trade negotiator said the US recognises that there are 'certain products' that are linked to food security in such a fashion that they cannot withstand a 'large opening' right away at the trade talks at the WTO.
These security related products are going to be subject to a 'more gradual treatment' in terms of market opening.
"For those products there's going to be more gradual treatment in terms of market opening, and so they'll take lesser tariff cuts and maybe provide smaller quotas than would otherwise be required. And this special products is an important point of negotiation" Hafemeister said.
He said some countries would like to effectively exempt most of their trade from any reform under the rubric of these special products but "That's too much."
"You know, we can envision a few of the most sensitive products that are most closely linked to subsistence farmers where some gentle treatment would be required. But our ideas for all products we have to see some increased trade for both the exporting and the importing countries to benefit from the gains from trade," he said.
The US, he said, wants a tightly circumscribed list of those products, and "we need to see some improved access for them".
"Similarly, we've talked about establishing a special safeguard mechanism that would allow developing countries for some of these same sensitive products to raise their tariffs if there's a flood of imports or if prices fall dramatically.
"But the key thing here is that this is supposed to guard against too much market opening. And our concern is that some of the negotiating partners are saying 'no opening at all.'
He said there is a need to work on that aspect.
