NEW DELHI/GENEVA: India is willing to sign a global trade deal, which it has torpedoed, if other WTO members can agree to its parallel demand for concessions on stockpiling food, senior officials in New Delhi said yesterday.
It was not immediately clear if the latest comments by Indian officials would open a window for the deal to be resurrected. In Geneva, a trade diplomat from a developing nation said: “The trust that countries have in what India says is going to be significantly diminished.”
The officials in New Delhi said the deal could be signed as early as September.
“It is ridiculous to say the Bali deal is dead,” said a senior official at India’s trade ministry, referring to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) pact that was agreed on the Indonesian island of Bali
last year.
Reuters
