Wednesday, July 5 2006 13:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India yesterday (July 4, 2006) blamed the United States for the face-off at the collapsed WTO mini-ministerial in Geneva and said Washington now held the key for forward movement in trade talks by agreeing to climb down on the contentious farm subsidies.

The adamant posturing of the US at the talks, on the issue of trade distorting domestic support and an attempt to re-negotiate the issue of Special Products that gives leverage to developing countries to protect their farmers, 'left no negotiating space'.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath today said, this virtually isolated the US at the talks and most of the other countries like European Union, Japan and 110 developing countries including India and Brazil decided to leave the meeting.

While EU has broadly agreed to the developing countries' proposal to cut import tariffs on farm products by 51 per cent, as against the earlier offer of 39 per cent, the US wanted more market access for its products without giving in on the issue of cutting farm subsidies.

Nath said it was not only India but several other countries felt there was no use in continuing with the talks, leading to the collapse of the mini-ministerial.