1 Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009 SSS-AKG/11.00/1A ...

97Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009My second important question, Sir, is: Why has India agreed to aformula for reduction of non-agricultural tariffs which has minimised ourbargaining advantage that we had by virtue of unilateral and autonomousliberalisation which we have pursued since Doha Round 2001? You areaware of the fact, Sir, that the Doha Round is about improving access.India had unilaterally decided to cut its tariffs very, very significantly fromthe time even when the Doha Round began to today when peak tariffshave been brought down from 50 per cent to no more than 15 per cent.India failed to get reciprocal advantages by some form of concessions inthe market of developed countries. Far from converting these tariffsreally into base tariffs, we are on the reverse being asked to furtherlower these tariffs and to engage in negotiations with the United States,particularly on products which are of special interests to them under thegarb of harmonisation or special interest category.So, my second question to the Minister is: Would he redress thebalance in terms of having accepted a coefficient formula, the so-calledSwiss formula, which Minister does not give us the advantage ofbecause the burden is against us? We have already agreed unilaterallyto a whole slew of reduction and we have not got any reciprocaladvantage from the countries in terms of access to their markets. So,would you wish to reverse the negotiating strategy to bring greaterbalance?My third question, Sir, is that in the negotiations on agricultureitself, India has not pressed hard enough on the proposals fordisciplining the so-called green-box subsidies as decoupled incomesupport which is being widely used, if I may say so, widely abused, by