US responsible for WTO collapse

July 25th, 2006 at 18:25 Björn Hallberg

Though they vehemently deny it. Among the ideas pushed by the US: Indian farmers would have to accept being driven out of business by US produce being dumped on the Indian market.

Blaming the US for its rigid stand on the contentious issue of farm subsidies and the collapse of WTO talks in Geneva, India today said it will not budge from its position till “structural flaws” in the global trading system are corrected.

“There are big gaps in mindsets. The US brought nothing to the table. It (US) wants market access in India and other developing countries for their subsidised agricultural products at the cost of security of livelihood of our farmers and this is not acceptable,” he said.

The EU could be faulted for not offering lower tariffs on US imports (as long as the produce is non-GMO of course), but as far as India is concerned, trying to pry open the market is nothing short of cynical and reminds one of the days when new markets were opened using powder and sword. The WTO may be more civilized, but it is, as Indian representatives noted, deeply flawed and imperial power in disguise.

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