MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US accuses India and China of putting at risk Doha talks

World trade talks entered a second week on Monday in Geneva with the United States representative accusing India and China of endangering the success of the discussions for having rejected a compromise painfully worked out by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.

In contrast to last Thursday, when the talks looked doomed and WTO delegates sought early flights home, over the weekend Lamy managed to clobber a compromise which seemed the basis for a new attempt at not letting the seven year Doha round talks collapse. Initially set to run for just six days, on Saturday following on Lamy's initiative it was agreed to extend the talks for another week. "Unfortunately a great emerging economy, India rejected the Lamy proposal, following on which another great emerging economy, China, also took distance. Their actions are endangering the whole Doha round process", said Ambassador David Shark during the ministerial meeting. On Sunday evening US Trade representative Susan Schwab alluded to the situation but did not mention countries. "We had an agreement. Unfortunately a few emerging markets have decided that they wanted it re-balanced to other issues. The balance is so delicate that if you push from one side it misbalances on the other, so that's how the only understanding with success chances so far has been broken", said Schwab. Shark said the US had gone a long way in concessions in spite of the fact many of them are contrary to its interests, but "after seven years we want a deal on world trade, which we know is absolutely vital for a majority of WTO members". India and China favor a safeguard mechanism which would enable them to increase tariffs if there's a disproportionate increase in imports or an abrupt drop in prices. Both countries also reject zero tariffs for the chemical and electronics industries China specifically underlined that cotton, sugar and rice will not be exposed to tariff variations. The US argues that a cap on its farm subsidies needs to have a counter opening of markets for those products.