India and other key trading powers will meet here this week for potentially make-or-break talks to end a deadlock in the Doha Round of global trade negotiations.
Ministerial representatives from the G4 group of influential trading players - the European Union, the United States, Brazil and India - will strive to reach a common position on agriculture, industrial goods and services during the two-day meeting which starts Wednesday.
"These talks are timely and important," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said in Brussels ahead of the talks. "If we fail (at these talks), Doha's prospects for this year will be lost." The meeting in the Indian capital will be attended by Mandelson, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, US trade representative Susan Schwab and Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim.
"We hope there'll be some movement (at this meeting) but it depends on how far developing countries' aspirations are fulfilled," an Indian government spokesman told AFP in New Delhi.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is hoping to conjure up a deal before the end of June when crucial trade negotiating powers of US President George Bush are set to expire.
India's Nath has said there is "no commitment by India on the deadline" and factors like the expiry of Bush's Trade Promotion Authority should not dictate the pace of negotiations.
If a breakthrough can be achieved by June, a conclusion to the Doha talks - which have been called a once-in-a-generation chance to help bring millions out of poverty - could be reached in about eight months, WTO officials say. Otherwise the Doha round, launched in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001 risks years of delay, they said.
An agreement among the world's two biggest trading powers, the US and EU, and the two leading developing nations India and Brazil, is seen as crucial to hopes of brokering a compromise among the WTO's 150 members this year.
India and Brazil have emerged as leaders in the developing world's challenge to the wealthy nations to curtail generous farm subsidies as they seek to keep their own agriculture supports.
None of the big players had made concrete offers on tariffs and farm subsidies, the main stumbling blocks, and India would prefer "no deal than a bad deal," the Indian commerce minister said.
The EU and other WTO members have called for Washington to make a new, more radical proposal on cutting farm subsidies while the EU is being pushed for steeper reductions in farm product tariffs.
"We want real, effective reductions in huge farm subsidies by countries like the US which distort world agriculture prices," the Indian spokesman said. "We must have a level playing field so the round's development mandate is fulfilled, the official said.
Developing nations are being pressed to open their markets wider to industrial goods and services and the United States is seeking fewer farm products on their "protected" list.
But India and other developing nations says they needs their farm tariffs to protect the livelihoods of their huge farming populations. Up to 80 percent of the workforces in developing nations depend on agriculture.
Mandelson said India, Brazil, the EU and the United States need to put solid offers on the table if negotiations are to succeed. "It's the responsibility of the G4 to put the numbers on the table" on reductions in farm support and agriculture and industrial tariffs, he said.
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