US still positive, thinks India will hop on board

He was reacting to commerce minister Kamal Nath’s statement yesterday in which he said India will not negotiate on giving more market access to the developed world in lieu of them reducing their subsidies to their agriculture sector. “I do not think either India or Brazil have ‘rejected’ our proposals. Both the countries have shown good attitude. This is a constructive opportunities for us to work together,” he said soon after participating in a panel discussion here. Trade officials from 149 countries around the world are meeting in Hong Kong this week to discuss how to remove trade barriers and increase global trade.

Earlier, Portman said at the panel discussion that the talks are being wrongly projected as a rich versus poor tussle. “I reject this perception that this (trade talks) is a fight between rich versus poor countries. With free trade both rich and poor countries have gained in the past,” said he.

“We should use this week to make tangible progress. We’ve got to take full advantage of this Hong Kong Ministerial, they only come around every couple of years or so,” said he.

“We need to take advantage of the meeting to both develop an effective Least development country, development package but also to make progress on advancing development through meaningful new market access. Let’s not lose this opportunity this week to make some gains on the core negotiating areas so that we can complete the Doha round by the end of next year and make it a round that’s truly worthy of its name,” he added.

The Doha round talks are knows as “development” round in order to give fair opportunities to the developing countries to develop. In order to benefit from low trade barriers, Portman said poor countries should invest more in roads, ports, financial system and telecom infrastructure. “You must have good infrastructure to benefit from low trade barriers,” Portman said.

The US is the biggest trade partner of India and Portman said the market access to America is one of the lowest in the world. The US, he said, is the most open country in the world to the products of least developed countries. “The US has its score of 6, Canada 7, the EU 15 and Japan 24. The lower score is better, by the way, unlike when you’re in school,” said he citing a World Bank monitoring report, which assesses the market access given by all the countries.

Only a day before the WTO ministerial meeting began here today, Nath had warned that no other issues will be discussed in Hong Kong till rich countries sort out the issue of high subsidies which they give to their farmers.