June 22, 2007 (LPAC)--Within a day after collapse of the G-4 (EU, US, India and Brazil) talks held in Potsdam, Germany, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath warned that efforts by the EU and US to create differences among the developing nations, which India and Brazil have organized to stand together for protecting their interests in agriculture and the industrial sectors, would be futile. Calling it "the end of the day for G-4", Kamal Nath told reporters: "I want to caution EU and the US that any effort to divide developing countries will not succeed... India stands firm with the developing countries," he said when asked to comment on US Trade Representative Susan Schwab's remarks that advanced developing countries like India, Brazil and China should open their markets for other developing nations.

The issue at stake was to reach an agreement to lower tariffs and subsidies in general, but both India and Brazil, as well as other developing countries, perceive it being designed by the EU and the U.S. to ensure greater access to the weaker agricultural and industrial markets of developing nations and weaken them further. Lashing out against the US Trade Representative Susan Schwab's attitude at the negotiations, Kamal Nath said: "It is not just a question of figures. It is a question of attitude. The U.S. does not realize that the world has changed."

The collapse of the talks ensures that no outline deal can be agreed upon before the summer is over, a step considered by the WTO bureaucracy as necessary to complete a detailed agreement before the year is over.