India has asked the United States to cut farm subsidies by just one dollar and New Delhi will come on board for a deal on the Doha Round of trade talks which has dragged for seven years.
"My offer to the US is that they should reduce their subsidy by just one dollar and we have a deal," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday at a conference on globalisation, organised by FICCI and University of Oxford.
But the US has not been forthcoming, Nath said. "They (the US) say: forget about reducing the subsidy even by a single dollar, we want to have a right to double it in the next 10 years," he said.
He said the British leadership, both in the government and academia, should try and influence the US administration to be reasonable and agree for removal of "structural flaws" that have marked the World Trade Organisation for the last 13 years.
Nath arrived in the United Kingdom from the US where he had several meetings, including the one with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. While, he said there was progress in talks, the US has accused India of wrecking the negotiations by 'working behind the scenes.'
Nath did not agree that it was India alone which had differences with the US on the issue of farm subsidies, livelihood concerns and opening market for industrial products.
"There is no question of India destroying any deal. There are 100 other countries which share most of our concerns," he said.
India and several other developing countries, including Brazil, Mexico and South Africa have rejected the latest proposals put forward by chairs of the World Trade Organisation negotiating groups on agriculture and industrial products.
While differences have been narrowed in agriculture, the crucial issue of livelihood concerns for poor farmers remains a sticky area.
Both India and the US are in election mode and will find it difficult to enter into any deal which does not go well with their voters.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy is keen on having a ministerial meeting -- the highest policy making organ -- in July. "That depends on the progress. Well, we have progress. We are better today than a month ago but there are many more milestones (to cross)," Nath said.
While Nath is having bilateral meetings in the US and the European Union, negotiators are engaged in some intensive talks in Geneva.
