Friday, December 16 2005 16:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hong Kong: Articulating developing countries' stand at the WTO talks here, India today (Dec 16, 2005) stuck to its position that there could not be any forward movement on industrial tariffs until its concerns on agriculture were addressed.

"We have made it clear that our concerns on agriculture must be completely taken on board. We want an end date for elimination of export subsidies along with Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms," Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters.

He said India has made it clear it will not agree on any formula for tariff reduction on industrial goods until the flexibilities for developing countries are specifically expressed in the draft text, for which intense negotiations are currently underway.

"India was working closely with the G-20, G-33 and G-90 alliances, which make up about 125 countries of the total 149 WTO members," he said.

In non-agriculture market access, Nath said, "Concerns of our small, medium and tiny enterprises have to be taken on board as they are vulnerable to tariff cuts."

Nath has written a letter to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy on India's position, emphasising that developing countries' views would have to be reflected in the draft Ministerial declaration.

India is pressing for specificity on Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism in the agriculture text of the draft Ministerial declaration, which sources say was being drafted by Pascal Lamy himself.

India has also rejected any move by developed nations to bring back the 'peace clause,' which provides immunity to them against any legal recourse to WTO on their subsidy.

On the development package for LDCs that gives them duty free and quota free market access, Nath said the US was seeking changes as its language was not completely acceptable to some countries.

"India, he said, is already in the process of giving duty free access to African LDCs. This proposal has already been cleared by Prime Minister's Trade and Economic Relations Committee and would be taken up by the Cabinet soon," he said.

Meanwhile, services negotiations, an issue in which India has offensive interests, is not making much progress in the WTO Ministerial, now in its fourth day.