Cancun (Mexico): The fifth WTO (World Trade Organisation) ministerial meeting begins at this Mexican beach resort on September 10 with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan making an emotional appeal to rich countries to end trade subsidies in agriculture, a topic that is going to generate heated discussions among trade ministers from 146 countries.

Indian delegation led by Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley arrives in Cancun on September 8, fully geared to counter the EU and US onslaught on developing countries by proposing to give very little on agriculture negotiations, crucial to the livelihood of 650 million Indian farmers.

Ahead of the 5-day meeting, Annan said it is the "moral imperative" of developed nations to give poor countries access to cheap generic drugs and end agricultural trade subsidies.

The WTO talks in Cancun will decide whether poor countries "will or will not, at last, be given a real chance to trade their way out of poverty," Annan said.

Apart from agriculture and access to cheap medicines, the contentious Singapore issues and market access in industrial products will dominate the negotiations that are expected to show sharp differences between developed and developing countries.

Speaking to reporters shortly before departure on September 7, Jaitley said high domestic support and export subsidies in developed nations had forced developing countries to have high tariffs which could be reduced only if developed nations go more than half way in providing market access in farm sector.

Jaitley has said India may show some flexibility on services negotiations and non-agriculture products market access, but certainly not in the area of agriculture and Singapore issues.

With EU hardening its stance on phased elimination of domestic support and export subsidies in agriculture, there are apprehensions that Cancun discussions could become another fiasco a la Seattle.

For the agricultural negotiations to be meaningful, EU would have to take at least 10 steps forward for developing countries to respond, the official sources said, adding "Instead of taking five steps forward EU is trying to take five steps backwards".

EU, they said, was not concerned about the development dimension of the Doha work programme and was only trying to protect its subsidies as the proposal jointly mooted by it and US suited it perfectly.

India, along with China and Brazil, has already submitted a framework on agriculture with Group of 17 other nations, which the Brazilian Foreign Minister Amorim hoped would be approved by ministers at the meeting.

"We were able to unite all 20 countries around one single proposal, which gives more legitimacy to our concerns," Amorim said. "We are optimistic this proposal can be approved."

PTI