London: India, with the help of other developing countries, will try to hammer the point at the Cancun Ministerial WTO (World Trade Organisation) conference that the developed countries would have to reduce agriculture and export subsidies.

"The fight for the developing countries in Cancun would be to force the developed world to reduce subsidies in their respective nations," Tejinder Khanna, former Indian Commerce Secretary said on September 7 night.

"As these nations give billions of Dollars as export subsidies, developing world would have to convince them on the point that what you have done till now is not sufficient and you would have to give the developing world a chance," Khanna said.

"The practical position is that the US and the EU would have to reduce the subsidies. They cannot escape this," Khanna, who represented India during many rounds of WTO negotiations, said.

Participating in the BBC Hindi Special Programme 'Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath' on the subject, 'Challenges for India at the Cancun Ministerial WTO Conference,' Khanna said India has been saying and has led the developing countries in this regard that the developed countries should reduce the export subsidy on agricultural produce.

"What has been happening is that the large export subsidy being given by the developed countries does not allow the developing countries' farmers to be able to export their produce and enter the international market."

PTI