India Sticks To Fishing Demands As WTO Tries To Avoid Impasse
NDTV
The WTO has operated for more than a quarter century on the basis of consensus decision-making - meaning any one member's veto can scuttle agreements.
Prospects for a grand redemption of the World Trade Organization dimmed as India stuck to its demands on several fronts during the third day of the trade body's ministerial conference in Geneva.
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told a meeting of delegates Tuesday that it would not bend on demands for extensive exceptions on a 20-year negotiation to curb harmful government fishery subsidies, according to a statement on his ministry's website.
He also insisted members water down the WTO's subsidy rules for government-backed food-purchasing programs aimed at feeding poor citizens, delegates in attendance said.
"The Indian delegation has raised everybody's eyebrows," Mexican Undersecretary of Foreign Trade Luz Maria de la Mora said in an interview. "You cannot come to a negotiating forum, particularly at this stage, making demands that they brand as non-negotiable."
