130614Air India slashes baggage on its domestic fleet

Abu Dhabi: The fifth day of WTO talks began with no sign of agreement. Several rounds of talks took place from late Thursday night till morning in which there were no signs of any diffrences being resolved. Late on Thursday night, a new draft of agreement and statement was circulated to all countries in which there was no mention of India’s point of view on agriculture. The concluding session of the talks has now been extended till 5 pm local time on Friday.

Several countries will hold elections this year and hence political assessments are being made about the deadlock in the talks. There is talk in political circles that if the deadlock continues on the issue of food security and grain subsidy, then India will take a tough stance on the interests of farmers. If any agreement is reached it will be a success. The Indian side hopes that talks can be reached by reducing taxes on remittances and ending customs duty exemption on e-commerce. Developed countries are adamant on continuing this concession forever.

According to sources, after late night talks, a new draft of the consent draft was circulated to the members in which there was no mention of  India’s demand on agriculture. India wants that the rules for determining agricultural subsidies for food security should be changed and a new formula for base year and evaluation should be implemented. The proposal of African countries has also not found a place in the fisheries draft. Sources said that differences are visible between EU and America on agricultural subsidy in the meetings.

Meanwhile, in case of failure of the talks, the process of fixing the blame has also started. A statement by America’s trade representative Katherine Tai is in discussion. She reportedly said the priorities of BRICS countries is overshadowing the talks. Her reference was to India and South Africa’s disagreement with China’s investment proposal.