A national consultation on 'What the WTO Doha Development Round means for India' held at the national capital on 29 August 2007 was attended by government officials, academicians, policy analysts, farmers groups and representatives of civil society organisations from across the country. With negotiations on agriculture and NAMA set to begin by September 2007 at the WTO headquarters in Geneva participants at the meeting voiced serious concerns on the implications of the current proposals on Indian Agriculture. The consultation was a joint initiative of Focus on the Global South -Mumbai, Food, Trade and Nutrition Coalition-Asia and Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security-New Delhi

While delivering the Special Lecture on Food Sovereignty Chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security Prof. MS Swaminathan emphasised that unless steps are taken to safeguard the nation's food sovereignty, there would be massive unrest.  'Without food sovereignty there would be no political sovereignty of the nation.  If accession to the WTO increases livelihood insecurity among farmers, we ought to bring back quantitative restrictions', he said.  
 
On the current drive to diversify towards production of cash crops, Swaminathan added, 'Agriculture trade policy ought to be based on the maxim - import less and live rather than export and perish'.  On the issue of wheat imports, he cited the case of Canada which permits only the state-owned Canadian Wheat Board to procure from farmers.
 
Former Union Minister M P Veerendra Kumar said that big corporations' entry into agriculture was resulting in the loss of livelihood for farmers. He added that 'Traditional crop varieties are being replaced and farmers are forced to rely on seed companies'.
 
Chairman of the Commision for Agriculture Cost and Prices Dr. T Haq in his inaugural address stated that 'the paradigm shift in Agriculture policy implies that self- sufficiency is no longer our goal. We should also recognise that this move to intergrate Indian agriculture with the world markets means that there is no role for small and marginal farmers in this country'.  
 
Commerce Secretary Mr. G K Pillai spoke about the state of play in the negotiations and India's stand in the run up to the September talks in Geneva. 'The general consensus is that the Agriculture draft paper forms a good basis to form a deal that will be acceptable to India. On the other hand the NAMA paper has been rejected by 112 countries and is as good as dead', he emphasised.
 
Former Ambassador to the GATT, BL Das was sceptical about India's prospects to get a good deal out of the Doha Round. 'Given India's proposals on Agriculture and NAMA, even with the best of results, it is not in our national interest', he warned.  
 
'With bulk of the subsidies parked in the Green Box, how can the Ministry of Commerce not demand its disciplining?  Reducing trade distorting subsidies by a few billion dollars is not going to save our farmers from dumping of subsidized agri-commodities by developed countries' said food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma.  
 
'USA's claim that it is reducing subsidies is incorrect' said Dr. Sachin Chaturvedi of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).  While presenting an analysis of the Farm Bill 2007 Chaturvedi pointed out that the US has increased its allocation for subsidies which contradicts its stand at the negotiations.
 
Experts felt that Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) have been put on the backburner.'IPRs have serious implications on our food sovereignty', said Dr. Suman Sahai of the New Delhi based think tank Gene Campaign. Highlighting the growing problem of rejection of exports by developed countries Vijay Sardana of Centre for International Trade in Agriculture (CITA) said, 'China is using SPS measures against the US to retaliate against export rejections.  Unfortunately, in our country, we have not yet formulated ways and means of using non-tariff barriers to protect our markets'.  
 
The meeting came up with a set of concrete demands to the Government:
 
1. 1.     Reject the present drafts on Agriculture and NAMA that will form the basis for restart of WTO negotiations in September.
2. 2.    A white paper on gains and losses from WTO should be brought out immediately by the Ministry of Commerce
3. 3.     Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) should be brought back to protect Indian agriculture;
4. 4.      Autonomous liberalisation should be stopped
5. 5.      Reopen negotiations on Article 27(3) (b) of the Agreement on TRIPS.
 

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