Tuesday, April 25 2006 18:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Geneva: Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath today (Apr 25, 2006) warned rich countries to stop sidelining the interests of the poor in WTO talks on liberalising global commerce, saying an international accord hangs in the balance.

"No deal is better than a bad deal. You can't have a deal that is against the mandate of this round," Nath toldreporters, referring to the World Trade Organisation's sluggish Doha Round negotiations.

The were launched in 2001 with the aim of tearing down barriers to commerce and using trade to boost the economies of poor nations.

"There is disappointment that there is still no recognition that this is the development round," he said.

The Doha Round was originally meant to end in 2004 but has stumbled repeatedly because of persistent disputes over trade concessions, particularly those pitting India and Brazil against the United States and European Union.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy said yesterday that the global body's 149 member governments would miss a key April 30 deadline for a deal on a crucial part of the talks: the mathematics for cutting customs duties and other barriers to trade. Missing the target was seen as a blow to efforts to finish the round by the end of this year.

Lamy had said that it was up to Washington to make concessions over the subsidies it pays US farmers, and Brussels to offer more access for agricultural imports into the EU, while key emerging nations such as Brazil and India should in turn cut barriers to commerce in industrial goods.

But today, after a meeting with Lamy, Nath said that India remained wary.

"If the round means destabilisation or deindustrialisation in industrial developing countries, if that's it, forget it," he said. "If 650 million farmers are sought to be put on a suicide track, then forget it. If 300 million people living with one dollar a day are to be pushed to 50 cents a day, forget it. Issues of subsistence and development are not up for negotiation," Kamal Nath said.

He urged Washington and Brussels to cut their customs duties on industrial goods by 50 per cent, something he noted that India had done a decade ago, and said they should subsequently offer further reductions.

If rich countries offer a cut of 80 per cent, India will cut its own industrial tariffs by 70 per cent, he said.