Saturday, January 28 2006 19:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Davos (Switzerland): India today (Jan 28,2006) asked the US and the European Union to cut farm subsidies and resolve other issues on peak tariffs to make the Doha round of WTO a success.

"The US and the EU should move if they want progress of the Doha round," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said after the mini-ministerial meeting of WTO here.

He said the prices of farm products have been artificially kept low by developed nation through heavy dose of subsidies to their farmers, which puts the developing nations at a disadvantageous position.

Moreover, he said tariff peaks and escalation must go. He cited the examples of difference in tariff on leather and textile and the finished products.

The WTO has also circulated a paper listing out the deadlines for resolving various issues.

According to the WTO paper, 33 outstanding issues on agriculture and some on the non-agriculture issues have to be resolved by April 30, 2006. The deadline is July 31 for issues pertaining to trade facilitation measures.