Commerce minister Kamal Nath with WTO director-general Pascal Lamy in New Delhi on Friday. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi, Jan. 19: World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Pascal Lamy today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and commerce minister Kamal Nath in an attempt to bring India around to give some concessions on agricultural market access to revive the Doha round of talks.

“My understanding is that the US and EU have started testing new positions. Something is cooking but it is not at the point of being served. It also needs Indian spices,” Lamy said after meeting Nath.

“Apart from India, Brazil, the US and EU, other chefs like Japan and Australia have to contribute to it,” he added.

However, India is believed to have maintained its tough stand on agriculture although it showed some flexibility on industry.

Nath said, “India wants to see a successful completion of the Doha round and will do whatever it can to ensure that progress is made. But the content of the round is as important as its timely completion.”

He said the trade ministers of 30 nations would meet in Davos next week to set out the modalities to restart the Doha round of negotiations.

“I hope the process gets started and timelines are set for completion of the round,” Nath added. Lamy has recently met US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to get the WTO talks going.

The US, EU and other trading blocs were considering new offers and India should also re-examine its stand, Lamy said.

Opening up of the agriculture sector for imports would not make the lives of Indian farmers any tougher, he said.

India should not be overtly concerned over farm subsidies and collaborate with the US, EU and Brazil to get the stalled Doha round of talks off the ground, Lamy said.

“We are at a defining juncture in the Doha Development Round. I have received signals of the desire to engage in talks in my meetings with the British Prime Minister, the US President, the German Chancellor and Asean and African leaders,” Lamy said.

Apec membership

Apec nations are considering whether to expand the grouping to include India.

Senior officials from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) met in Canberra this week to discuss whether to end a 10-year moratorium on new members and admit some of the 12 nations, led by India, seeking to join Apec.

Australia’s Apec ambassador David Spencer earlier admitted that much of the interest surrounds whether India, which along with China is at the centre of the economic boom in Asia, will become a member.

“If you look at the economic significance of the members who have expressed interest in Apec, the most important by far, economically, strategically, politically, would be India,” he said, adding, “Clearly it is India that will weigh heavily on peoples’ minds about the potential for new members.”

“We had a very quiet discussion on that issue, it’s not something that made any significant progress,” he was quoted as saying today.

Spencer, however, believed there was unlikely to be any real movement until the leaders meet in September, adding, “It is a politically sensitive issue and I expect a decision will not be taken until September by our ministers and leaders.”