Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath claimed on Friday that India will not move in the agricultural negotiations here unless the developed countries set a definite date for elimination of all forms of export subsidies in the agriculture sector.

He said in a press release that there would be no movement as far as India was concerned in the area of industrial tariffs, either, without the flexibility in tariff reduction commitments that were required to protect domestic industries in India.

Nath stressed that India is standing firm on the issues of interest to it in the key sectors of agricultural and non-agricultural market access.

In order to safeguard the interests of Indian agriculture in the ongoing Doha Round of negotiations on agriculture during the ongoing Sixth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, the G-20 -- of which India is a founder member -- has also sought elimination of all forms of export subsidies by a credible end date, he said.

He added that under the Special & Differential Treatment provisions for developing countries, the July Framework of 2004 provides that developing countries will continue to profit from provisions that allow subsidies for marketing and transport of exported goods for a reasonable period even after all agricultural export subsidies have been phased out.

On industrial tariff negotiations, Nath said he had made it amply clear during Green Room discussions that it would not be possible for India to move forward in the negotiations without the flexibility that developing countries need to protect their domestic industries.

He said "this is absolutely vital for countries like India in order to be able to safeguard the interests of small and medium enterprises which provide livelihood to millions of industrial workers."

Source: Xinhua