India to get more time for meeting WTO standards

India to get more time for meeting WTO standards
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

JAN 11: In a candid admission, World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Mike Moore has expressed dissatisfaction over the agreement on agriculture and textiles reached at the last round of deliberations.

Mike, who was here to participate in the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CCI) Partnership Summit-2001, told a media conference today that the present deal especially on agriculture is "not fair". But, this has to be dealt with by the member countries in the next round of negotiations.

Asked about the dominant opinion that Indian farmers were being discriminated by the WTO agreement, Moore pointed out that similar apprehensions were being voiced by farmers in the US, Japan, South Korea, Egypt and some Scandinavian nations.

Admitting indirectly that developed countries were not opening up their agriculture sectors on par with the underdeveloped countries, the WTO chief executive lamented that rich countries were insisting that they be allowed access to compensate their losses elsewhere.

However, Moore assured India that underdeveloped countries would be given sufficient "time and space" to meet the standards stipulated by the WTO. "We even give technical assistance and other relaxations to the countries which face difficulties due to our agreement," he pointed out.

In fact, the issue of agriculture subsidies dominated Moore's address at the summit's plenary session earlier. Posing a question, Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister Vadde Sobhanadreswara Rao urged Moore as well as his successor Supachai Panitchapkdi to look into the farmers' problems sympathetically.

Rao said that due to high degree of protection given to agriculture in the developed countries, India was not able to export its produce, though it is low priced. "On the other hand, the World Bank and other lending agencies are not allowing us to increase subsidies to the farm sector," he pointed out.

While WTO allows 10 per cent subsidy, Indian farmers were only getting three per cent, Rao said. Moore, however, expressed helplessness saying that these issues had to be sorted out in the next round of WTO ministerial negotiations.

At the same time, the WTO director general called upon India to take up the leadership role in the negotiations. "To build a strong global community of the future, we urgently need progress on all fronts. This will require India's leadership," he said.

Acknowledging India's strong position in the world, Moore said: "In the past, only developing countries looked to India, but now the whole world recognises India's unique position economically and politically. We need your advice, leadership and enthusiasam".

While predicting a bright future for India due to its advantages on the IT field, the WTO director general cautioned Indian leaders of low levels of literacy and high degree of poverty in the country and asserted that a multilateral agency like WTO was the only way to tackle poverty.