The chamber, probably the only one to express apprehension way back in 1994 on the negative aspects of the Dunkel Draft and the subsequent agreement with WTO, has submitted a memorandum to the Union government in a bid to look after the interests of its members.

"Our views were not taken seriously then. But now, the Union government is talking about the negative aspects of WTO agreements and hopefully seeking cooperation of the industry and private sector to safeguard the interests of the national economy," president of the chamber, Ajay Kajaria said.

The growth of Indian textile exports, according to the chamber, has remained stagnant at the pre-WTO agreement level of 4.3 per cent, while developed countries have grown with a rate of around nine per cent.

"For India, the exportgrowth in textiles has declined over the years from eight per cent to around three per cent now due to repeated investigations over charges of dumping and inadequate access to the European and American markets. Moreover, US and Canada are constantly resorting to non-tariff barriers like quota restrictions," Kajaria said.

Therefore, the crucial point of negotiation for the Indian government at Seattle will be to demand a total removal of quota restriction by US, Canada and Europe, the chamber said.

"As India does not have any quota restriction, it may reasonably insist on equal treatment by these countries. This will provide a larger market for textile exports from India which constitute nearly 30 per cent of the total export basket of $8 billion," Kajaria said.

The chamber said that the textile agreement was unfavourable for developing countries for two reasons. "First, product coverage under the multi-fibre agreement phase-out has increased and the entire range of textiles and clothing is covered,which means those items that are not covered by quota restrictions are also included. Second, 49 per cent of the textile sector is to be integrated by WTO within last five years of the phase-out period which lacks credence and pressure might be built up to extend this to a 10-year period. As such, front loading or equal loading should be demanded," Kajaria said. The chamber president felt that in the agro-sector, the root cause of the distortion in world trade is due to the massive subsidies given to the farmers by the developed countries.

"To keep the market open for fair competition, the starting point has therefore to be cutting of subsidies by developed countries to their farmers, followed by reduction in export subsidies and minimum market access opportunities for farm products," he added.

India is under no obligation to reduce any of the subsidies given to the farmers, since the Aggregate Measurement Support (AMS) calculations show that Indian agriculture is more taxed than subsidised.

"As regardsdomestic support to Indian agriculture, product-specific support was negative to the tune of (-) 38.5 per cent and non-product specific support was 7.5 per cent of the value of agricultural commodities in 1995-96. Thus, both product-specific and non-product specific support are below the 10 per cent level allowed to developing countries," Kajaria said.