She said the developing countries were convinced that dairying should benefit the rural people, but attempts were on to skew international trade in favour of the North.

Inaugurating a `South-South Workshop on Smallholder Dairy Production and Marketing - Constraints and Opportunities', jointly organised by NDDB and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at Anand on Tuesday, she called upon the delegates to prevail upon their governments to be watchful against these potential destructive forces.

"Every country represented here has agreed to allow free trade in milk and milk products. Most countries represented here have tariffs on dairy commodities far lower than European and North American nations. This, despite the fact that none of them can afford to subsidise milk production and dairy products exports to the extent rich nations can,"she said. While the Uruguay Round did result in agreements to reduce subsidies, the effect is tokenism and not substantive, she said. "Not satisfied with the comparative advantages, we plan to use international bodies like Codex Alimentarius, to legitimise non-tariff barriers which are scientifically unsustainable." Talking about Operation Flood which made India self-sufficient in milk and milk products over the last three decades, Dr Patel said, "the mandarins of WTO would never like to see another Operation Flood which could limit imports. The Operation Flood used donated dairy products to build markets, generate resources to promote cooperatives, provide inputsand services to farmers, build dairy plants and carry out supporting research,'' she said.