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India has successfully safeguarded its market access concerns in the area of agriculture in the key meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade ministers in Zurich . In the meeting of the FIPS ( Five Interested Parties), Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, who is leading the Indian delegation, rejected outright the two tariff reduction formulae - one proposed by the US-Australia called “progressivity within a band” and the other proposed by the EU (European Union) for “a pivot within each band” in the agriculture market access negotiations which would have been detrimental to the interests of developing countries, including India. Shri Kamal Nath strongly opposed the concept of progressivity and said there was no question of India accepting it. “ We (the G-20) had already agreed to the banded formula in the Framework. Progressivity is nothing but the Swiss formula which we had already rejected”, he said. After hectic negotiations, the US and Australia conceded not to press for progressivity within bands for tariff reduction.
Shri Nath forcefully articulated India’s position that given the difference in tariff structures of developed and developing countries, overall proportionality in reduction commitments between the two could be achieved only if the thresholds, rates of reduction within a band and even the number of bands were different for developing countries vis-à-vis the developed countries.
On the issue of flexibility in the market access formula around a “pivot” (the average rate of cut in each band) pressed by the EU, India presented the G-20 position that if the EU pushed this concept through, it could effectively lead to blocking market access in products of export interest to developing countries. India was also concerned that the pivot concept might encourage some developed countries to become unnecessarily ambitious in the tariff reduction formula, putting the burden of proportionately higher cuts on developing countries as well. Finally, the EU agreed to give up this demand. The burying of both progressivity and pivot in the market access negotiations is seen as a significant strategic victory for developing countries in the agriculture market access negotiations in the WTO.
SB
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