(Reuters) - India
has told the United States it must give ground in negotiations over
food stockpiling to secure a global trade deal next month, a step widely
seen as vital for the credibility of the World Trade Organization.
In a letter to U.S. Trade
Representative Michael Froman, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma
emphasised the "social significance"
of allowing a change in the WTO
rules to let poor countries stockpile subsidised food.
"As
I had explained to you, Food Security is crucial for large developing
countries like India with hundreds of millions of people subsisting
below the poverty line," Sharma wrote, according to excerpts made
available to Reuters.
"It must also
be juxtaposed with the fact that the agrarian economy of India is
driven by subsistence and marginal farmers unlike the large contract
farmers in the developed world. You will appreciate that protecting the
interests of farmers and vulnerable sections of society is a key
political imperative for a country like India."
India
led 46 developing countries in proposing the reform a year ago,
suggesting that poorer countries should be exempt from limits on
subsidies when they stockpile food to support low-income or
resource-poor farmers.
The proposal
has been one of the main sticking points in a package of trade reforms
that the WTO wants its 159 member countries to agree on at a summit in
Bali next month.
WTO chief Roberto
Azevedo has been pushing trade ambassadors in a last-ditch bid to put
the deal together and warned them on Tuesday not to keep negotiating
until the last moment, while vowing to push them to the limit.
"We
have to close this in Geneva," he said. "It is all or nothing now. We
must tie the package up once and for all in the next few days."
Azevedo
said he had a positive feeling about the stockpiling element of the
talks and "a sense that both sides are working in good faith with a
genuine desire to find a solution".
But
Sharma said an interim solution under discussion "falls well short of
our requirements and would place onerous conditions which would restrict
its use significantly".
However,
he was more positive on the biggest component of the proposed Bali deal,
known as "trade facilitation", an effort to standardise and simplify
customs procedures for all WTO members.
Anand
said he was reassured that there was a broad meeting of minds on the
issue, and suggested India should be given credit for narrowing the
negotiating gaps.
"You will
appreciate that over the last few weeks Indian negotiators have played a
very constructive role in line with our commitment for a positive
outcome to ensure that progress is registered on this front," he told
Froman.
In his speech on Tuesday,
Azevedo said trade facilitation, which is expected to add hundreds of
billions of dollars to the world economy, had been partially agreed but
other parts still required some "tough calls" by negotiators. (Writing
by Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
