New Delhi, October 18
The CPM has questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent statement that the Doha WTO parleys on agriculture should proceed with the removal of trade barriers, saying any compromise or “about turn” on the issue of concessions by the developed world would be “disastrous” for millions of Indian farmers.

Referring to an external affairs ministry statement in Abuja on talks between Singh and US President George Bush, the left party said Singh had been quoted as saying “it was our duty to the global community ... to ensure that the Doha round too takes us forward on the path of removing barriers to trade”.

“It is indeed strange" that this came on the eve of the second IBSA Summit when all three countries, India, Brazil and South Africa, were members of the NAMA-II (Non-Agricultural Market Access) group that had “rejected” the Doha text, CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an editorial in the party organ ‘People's Democracy’. He said India was also critical of the agriculture text “as it does not concretise the specific measures it needs to protect its agriculture and leaves open the degree of market access the developed countries will offer.

It is difficult to understand this sudden about turn in India’s stand on the NAMA and the agriculture text as there has been no corresponding change in either the texts or the position of the developed countries,” Yechury said. — PTI