Rich nations must change their attitude in free trade talks and stop pressing developing countries for concessions, India's Trade Minister said on Thursday. Speaking as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) missed another target in its already delayed Doha Round, Kamal Nath said developing countries were not in a position to grant sweeping access to their industrial markets to their richer competitors. "What we need to move forward is an attitudinal change," Nath told Reuters in an interview. "Because what we are seeing now is developed countries saying tell us what we will get and then we will tell you what we will give you." The Doha Development Agenda was about promoting development in poorer countries and that was not going to happen if they were forced to put their industries at risk, he added. The round, which was initially due to have been concluded in 2004, aims to lower barriers to trade across the global economy, starting with the huge farm subsidies of rich nations which developing countries say deny them markets. But partly to compensate for the greater opening of their farm markets, richer states are pressing for at least the more advanced developing countries to grant greater access to their industrial goods and services markets. "The more advanced developing countries will need to make significant contributions on market access," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier told journalists on Thursday. But Nath said that India had already opened its markets, with the proof being the 40 percent jump in trade between India and the United States over the first three months of 2005. "I have already given market access. The trade figures say so," he said. The WTO had set itself the goal of reaching some key accords in the round by the end of July, particularly on the formulas to be used for tariff cuts in both farm and industrial goods. But it failed to make the needed progress, complicating the task of negotiators as they struggle to prepare a full draft deal for ministers from the WTO's 148 member states to approve at their next conference in Hong Kong in December. Despite the setback, Nath said that he was still hopeful that the Hong Kong deadline could be met. At least all states now had a clear idea of everybody's negotiating position. "All the cards are on the table," he said. But he warned that India would not accept just any agreement in order to finish the round. "It is better not to have an agreement at all than to have one that does not address the heart of the issue, which is development," he said.
