Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma’s sweeping statement to international newswire agency Reuters that the impasse between India and the US over agriculture-related trade issues has been broken could well mean a long-awaited but sudden and surprising end to the Doha Development Round of the WTO. The Doha Round, under which negotiations started in November 2001, has been held up over several contentious issues of concern for developing countries including India, China and Brazil.

With the latest round of talks collapsing in July last year primarily because of a logjam between India and the US over special safeguards for developing countries to guard their farm sector against a sudden surge in agri-imports, the developed world had come to see India as the primary reason for the deadlock in WTO negotiations. Eighteen of the 20 contentious trade issues had already been resolved by the group of seven (G-7) countries — US, UK, EU, Japan, China, Brazil and India — involved in the core trade negotiations. Special safeguard mechanisms (SSMs) for developing countries was the nineteenth item on the list, followed by cotton subsidies in the US, at number 20.

“It is a very categorical statement that the commerce minister has made, and if it is true, it could well mean that the Doha Round may be concluded soon,” said economist Bibek Debroy. “Cotton subsidies may not pose as big a problem as SSMs since the developed countries already have a commitment regarding other trade distorting subsidies and these might be treated in a similar fashion.” Sharma told Reuters India was keen that the WTO negotiations resumed. Biswajit Dhar, head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the IIFT, is of the view that the minister’s statement is open-ended and, perhaps, more of a reaffirmation that both the countries were committed to closing the Doha Round soon and may look at alternatives solutions to the debate over SSMs.