New Delhi: Warning that the collapse of the WTO's (World Trade Organisation) Cancun Ministerial in September would have harsh impact on developing countries including India, the European Union (EU) on October 8 accused the country's mainstream media of wrongly declaring "failure as a success".

"Immediately after the Cancun Meet, I was quite surprised to see the mainstream Indian media declare the failure as a success," Michel Caillouet, Ambassador, Head of Delegation, EU, said at a conference in New Delhi.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth... The consequences of the Cancun breakdown will be particularly grave for those - mainly developing countries who were seeking significant reductions in agricultural subsidies and improved market access for agricultural and industrial products," he said.

Expressing concern that the breakdown of talks at Cancun dealt a blow to WTO as an institution, Caillouet said, "The failure of the trading partners to respond to the major moves and flexibility shown by the European Commission -- on goods, services, special and differential treatment, the Singapore issues, development and environment -- was in our view most unfortunate and a unique opportunity lost for freeing multilateral trade relations."

He said the main consequence of this failure will be the delay in the progress of Doha Development Agenda negotiations due to the failure to agree on the scope and parameters of these (WTO) negotiations.

PTI