Fresh from winning the vote of confidence of the UPA government, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday returned to the mini-ministerial meeting of the Doha Development Round negotiations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and played hardball giving little in return for the offers put on the table by the developed country leaders — the US on cutting its overall trade distorting farm subsides (OTDS) to $15 billion and the European Union on bringing down its farm tariffs to 60 per cent.

Referring to the trust vote victory, he said in a lighter vein that “if there was a vote here, we (the developing countries) would win it too”. The minister, however, said “this was a round where developed countries have to put something on the table and not come and look into the pockets of the developing countries.”

When asked if he would wait till the US and the EU make their rock bottom offers before he puts forward India’s return offers, Nath said that there was no question of making any compromises on India’s core concerns. “When I am negotiating, I am willing to negotiate commerce. I am not willing to negotiate livelihood security, I am not willing to negotiate subsistence, I am not willing to negotiate poverty,” the minister said. On industrial goods negotiations, Nath said he was astonished by statements of the rich countries that countries like India are holding back on providing market access.

“I am obviously not here to hand around freebies without getting something in return. Let me also say that those who accuse us of not moving on market access, have not moved an inch since the Uruguay Round in reducing high tariffs or tariff peaks on exports of developing countries,” he said.