WTO chief coming to Bangalore for CII meet

World Trade Organization Chief Pascal Lamy is expected to visit India next week to attend the CII Partnership Summit in Bangalore during which he would also seek New Delhi's support to finalise an agreement in the stalled Doha trade liberalisation negotiations by end-March, trade analysts said.

Though Mr Lamy is primarily going to attend the CII meeting in Bangalore which will take place from January 17-19, he would visit New Delhi to discuss with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath how to advance Doha trade negotiations in the coming days, an Indian official told Deccan Herald.

Mr Lamy is currently calling on the heads of states of key countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom to mobilise support for the Doha negotiations which broke down last year because of unbridgeable differences.

As the the European Union and the US are now close to identifying a "landing zone" in the crucial exchange rate between what Washington will do to reduce its trade-distorting domestic support and Brussels on increasing market access for farm products, the focus shifts to India which is seen as key player in the jigsaw puzzle.

On Monday, the US and the EU have more or less reached an agreement that Washington would reduce its domestic farm subsidies from its proposed level of $23 billion to somewhere below $17 billion while Brussels is expected to accept tariff cuts for its farm products little over what was proposed by the developing country coalition G-20.

The two sides are also working simultaneously on the process-related details to ensure that there is multilateral backing for whatever understanding that is reached between them.

Trade chiefs of the US and Brazil met last week to sort out their differences. Apparently, the US had suggested to Brazil that it should help bring India into the understanding that is reached between Washington and Brussels, sources said.

The US wants to ensure that there is significant market-opening for its farm products in India but New Delhi feels strongly that it can't sacrifice the interests of its subsistence and livelihood concerns of its poor farmers. An issue between the US and India is over the magnitude of flexibilities for some farm products as Washington insists that there should be extremely restrictive conditions while New Delhi is calling for liberal treatment based on the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.

Besides, the US and the EU want India to deliver significant opening for industrial products.