India has expressed its disappointment over the revised draft text for WTO ministerial in Cancun, saying that the text does not provide solutions to concerns of developing countries on agricultural market access. In a statement on the revised draft, India said, “unfortunately, the draft ministerial text does not provide us with the necessary levels of comfort so that developing countries are in a position to make major contributions in market access.” The statement was made by S.N. Menon, additional secretary, commerce ministry, at the meeting of WTO general council in Geneva on Tuesday. It noted that “for India, with over 650 million people dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, it becomes all the more important that the agricultural negotiations do not become a tool to impoverish them further. India has also demanded that “a different structure of tariff reduction for developing countries is absolutely essential because there are two categories of members, one with deep pockets who subsidise their agriculture heavily leading to distortions and the others who have no financial resources to provide support to their farmers even when required.The statement stressed that if substantial reduction in domestic support does not take place and export subsidies are not eliminated, distortions in international agriculture cannot be removed. India, along with the group of 17 developing countries had submitted a framework on agriculture which indicated the reduction in ambition that were required in domestic support and export competition. “We find that all these elements are not included in the draft ministerial text. On export subsidies we do not derive confidence in the formulation provided in the text that export subsidies will be eliminated soon or in near future,” the statement said. The statement noted that “on special and differential treatment for developing countries as outlined in the draft of the Harbinson text on modalities for agricultural negotiations, a number of these elements were covered in the draft ministerial text and hoped that along with some elements mentioned in the Harbinson text it would ultimately form part of the modalities. ’’
