In a major victory for India, Suppachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of World Trade Organization said on Friday that any deal to break the impasse in the contentious farm trade talks will have to take into account the "sensitivities of Indian agriculture".
"The deal has to take into account the sensitivities of Indian agriculture and this is something which the ministers of member countries are aware of," Suppachai told reporters after his meeting with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
India and the WTO: News and Issues
India has been maintaining it will not compromise on the need to protect livelihood concerns of its 650 million farmers in the farm trade talks, which have been stalled since the collapse of Cancun Ministerial.
The recent G-20 paper on agriculture, finalised on the sidelines of UNCTAD meeting at Sao Paulo has been dubbed by India as the 'starting point' to break the deadlock.
The paper emphasises on the need for movement on three pillars of farm negotiations -- market access, domestic support and export subsidies in tandem, which meant taking into account sensitivities of protecting interests of farmers.
He said the differences on contentious issues were narrowing down and there were signs of flexibility in both developed and developing countries, raising hopes of a framework by July end.
"The signs we are getting are that although countries could not agree on convergence in position, they are negotiating and providing different options for others to consider. So they are still trying to be flexible in their position and this gives me good hope," he said.
On the G-20 stand that movement on all three pillars of agriculture negotiations should be in tandem, Suppachai said, "I think this is the principle which all participating members countries do accept.
"US accepts, EU also accepts it. Balance between the three pillars is what we are working on. Specificity must be spelled out in all the three areas. This is seriously accepted and this is what we are working on in Geneva."
Suppachai said he had emphasised on the need to have a framework by July in his meeting with the commerce minister.
Suppachai, who is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said he was hopeful of a July deal.
"At the moment negotiations are still going on with the hope that we can narrow down the differences, particularly in areas of market access. I have been told that further progress has been made in the areas of domestic support and export subsidies.
"I tried to emphasise to the minister that we need to finalise this before the July General Council," he said.
Kamal Nath emphasised that India would not budge from its position to protect the livelihood concerns of its farmers.
"Agriculture is not a trade issue and cannot be treated like that by WTO. It is associated with livelihood concerns, development and many more such issues. Our sensitivities cannot be compared with other nations," he said, adding that is why India has emphasised on specific provisions like special products to protect the sector.
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