India seeks more balanced outcome in WTO

Conditions imposed by developed countries and unfair trade practices were responsible for the deadlock in WTO's trade liberalisation talks, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said. "The current freeze we are witnessing is because the debate is being deflected from an unconditional delivery of the development dimension to conditionalities that expose what seem to be the real intention of some," he said delivering a special address at Oxford University's Said Business School.

High subsidy given by developed countries and industrial tarriffs has been the most contentious issue at WTO talks since the Doha Development Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001. Representatives of four key WTO players - India, the US, Brazil and the European Union, held a meeting in New Delhi in mid-April but failed to reach an agreement.

The representatives are expected to meet again on May 17-18 in Paris. Nath spoke at length on the rapid growth India has been registering during the last few years and himself posed the question "what has all this got to do with the WTO? If India is doing so well, then why is it perceived as being difficult in the negotiations?"