It was also in agriculture again that many developing countries had natural comparative advantage, but they were shut out from world markets by a complex edifice of protection, built on high tariff walls, domestic and export subsidies, and an intricate maze of non-tariff barriers, he said, while emphasising that in many developing countries, including India, hundreds of millions of low-income and subsistence farmers eked out a precarious livelihood from agriculture.
“Unless the playing field is completely leveled, they cannot enter the arena of international competition. Our farmers are quite willing to deal with trade flows – but not with an avalanche of subsidy flows from developed countries” he said.
On industrial tariffs or non-agricultural market access (NAMA), Mr. Kamal Nath reiterated that market access was not about tariffs alone, as non-tariff barriers such as abuse of both anti-dumping and technical standards hindered market access for developing countries. “If we are to pursue the so-called 'real' market access in the NAMA negotiations, the boot is surely on the other foot…. It is no use having zero duty levels of aeroplanes, while maintaining a 30% duty on leather handbags!” he said while flagging trade barriers by India's traditional industries as textiles, clothing, leather products, footwear and a range of other medium technology products, involving livelihood of hundreds of millions of industrial workers of small and medium enterprises in developing countries.
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