July 30, 2008 (LPAC)--In the ninth day of World Trade Organization talks in Geneva, formal negotiations were called off today, after a stand-off resulted from the insistence yesterday by Kamal Nath, India Minister for Commerce and Trade--supported by Indonesia--that nations have the right to protect their farmers and domestic food supply against import surges of foodstuffs. Nath is demanding that effective Special Safeguard Mechanisms (SSMs) must be in any new pact. This demand has been opposed by the United States, and representatives from the cartel export-source nations in South America. But India and Indonesia are adamant.

Nath said last night that 90 nations supported his position, and that he was determined to protect the "poorest of the poor from import surges." Nath dismissed as "not workable" a proposal by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, on how to modify the SSM so it might by acceptable to both sides of the dispute.

India is strongly supported by Trade Minister Mari Pangestu of Indonesia, who said in the debate that she has to ensure the survival of 60 million farmers--mostly small-scale rice growers--who are vulnerable to competition from large foreign producers. Many developing countries are pointing to the current jump in food prices as a major reason for why their farmers need extra protection against a spike in prices or imports. They say rapid fluctuations could cause entire domestic rice markets to dry up if left unchecked, imperiling their food security.

India and Indonesia--the world's fourth largest population, account for 1.387 billion of the world's people. China too, has lined up with India, demanding the right to set high tariffs on rice and sugar, and also cotton, as needed to protect its farmers and 1.330 billion people. The Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said in Geneva, "The crux of the current serious difficulties that have arisen in the Doha Round negotiations is that, having protected its own interest, the United States is asking a price as high as heaven."

Lamy is reportedly trying to resume talks tonight on an "informal" basis, as various sub-groups confer throughout the day. Several ministerial delegations have begun leaving the city. The U.S. Permanent Representative to the WTO David Shark complained of the WTO Doha Round now put under the "greatest jeopardy of its seven-year life."

The accusations were red-hot yesterday, as the U.S. and the WTO secretariat ran into a brick wall on the de facto question of sovereignty implicit in India's position. In one incident inside the discussion hall, the U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, throwing up her hands, said, "I have noted with time that if you pull one threat it is likely to unwrap. So now we are in a situation where one country has parted with the original agreement and the second country is backtracking on its commitment it made to rest of us." Then, she added--continuing her conspicuous avoidance of naming names, that some large emerging countries were causing problems in clinching a global trade deal.

In reply, Trade Minister Nath stood up and said: "We are large, I can't help that. We are emerging and nobody should brush that."

It was after this intense exchange in the discussion hall that official talks were called off for this morning, and later cancelled althogether.

At the July 18 U.N. General Assembly Special Session on the Global Food and Energy Crisis, the India representative was also among the most outspoken about the crisis, and need for nation-serving measures. Nirupam Sen, Permanent Representative of India to the U.N., began by emphasizing the need to take up the food and energy crises as an integrated matter, adding, ``It would have been even more useful to consider today the third crisis also--i.e., the global financial crisis, which is posing its interrelated challenges to our development efforts. Any meaningful response must address all these three issues.''

The other battles lines in Geneva right now, are taking place within the European Union bloc itself. Nine EU member states are demanding better terms that the EU Trade Minister Peter Mandelson will permit. These are: France, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Cyprus and Italy. Today, for example, the Irish Farmers Association is holding a rally at the Government Buildings in Dublin, to protest WTO beef trade proposals.