India's trade minister on Wednesday warned member nations of the World Trade Organization against backtracking on the pledge they made four years ago - to reform the global trading system to the benefit of the poor.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath accused wealthy nations of drifting from the original mandate of the current round of trade talks and urged delegates at a WTO meeting not to rush into any deal that hurts the interests of the developing countries.
The ongoing talks were launched in 2001 in Doha, Qatar's capital, with an explicit aim to address concerns of developing countries, which say they didn't get much from previous negotiations that culminated in the establishment of the WTO a decade ago.
"In the name of completion, if the content of this round only perpetuate the inequities of global trade, then it will be no round," Nath told delegates to a WTO meeting. "To redeem the pledge we made at Doha, let us resolve to make this a round for those who need it."
Nath said the outcome of the Doha round would be most critically judged in the area of agricultural trade, where developing countries would like to see the U.S., the EU and Japan making more concessions.
Developing countries, led by Brazil and India, want the U.S., EU and Japan to eliminate export subsidies and make drastic cuts in other trade-distorting support to farmers by 2010.
They say the subsidies, running into billions of dollars, undercut the competitive advantage of their farmers and threaten their livelihood.
"Our farmers are quite willing to deal with trade flows, but not with avalanche of subsidy flows from development countries," Nath said.
