Sunday, November 20 2005 09:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government yesterday (Nov 19, 2005) said it would not allow the developed world to force India to compromise on issues of interest to it during the ongoing world trade negotiations or at the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial next month.

The assurance was given by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath to leaders of Left parties, who called on him to discuss about the WTO negotiations.

"The objectives are common... There is no divergence of opinion between us and the Left parties, but they expressed some concerns," the minister said after the meeting, which lasted four hours.

He also made it clear that there would be no bargain over agriculture for any gain in other sectors at the WTO and interests of poor farmers would be safeguarded at any cost.

However, Left parties expressed concern over the 'multinationalisation' of sectors like education and health, to which Kamal Nath said the government had put stringent entry regulations and these were part of services negotiations and still being negotiated.

The Left leaders, who met Nath included D Raja (Communist Party of India), S R Pillai (Communist Party of India Marxist), S P Shukla (advisor to CPI-M), and Manoj Bhattacharya (Republican Socialist Party).