WTO talks enter 5th day; stalemate continues

Nairobi: The WTO talks entered the fifth day on Saturday as a deadlock continued over reducing farm subsidies and on providing protection to poor farmers of developing nations, such as India, in case of import surge.

The 10th WTO Ministerial was originally scheduled to end last night but developed and developing countries failed to iron out differences on these issues.

"The meeting is still on since last night," sources said, adding that a small group of countries -- India, the US, EU, China and Brazil -are discussing the issues. India has made it clear that it would not compromise the interests of farmers and agri-related sectors.

It has also asserted to include the public stockholding issue for food security purposes in the preamble of the Nairobi declaration.

It also wants that special safeguard mechanism (SSM) should be delinked from market access.

On the other hand, developed countries, including the US, have been vocal on discontinuing with the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

Yesterday, some twitterati blamed India for blocking the talks, while others pointed finger at the US.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has rejected the allegations against India and said: "India blocking WTO?! Disagree... Need to ensure Indian farmers/Agri interests are safe. Undue haste in pushing select (matters which are) subject of interest (of developed countries) worrying."