New Delhi: India on July 30 warned WTO (World Trade Organisation) members of backlash in developing countries if economic reforms were perceived to be an imposition from outside and said this could prove to be a set back to the whole process of multilateral negotiations.

"If the pace of economic reforms was such as to cause dislocation or to be perceived as an imposition from outside, then there could be a backlash which could set back the whole process of multilateral trade negotiations," Minister of Communication, IT and Disinvestment Arun Shourie said at the informal meeting of the WTO at Montreal on July 29.

"Stick to the (Doha) text and be cautious in moving forward," Shourie told the mini-ministerial meet attended by 24 member countries.

Pointing out that food and livelihood security of a large number Indians was dependent on agriculture, Shourie stressed the importance of this sector as the key Indian concern in WTO negotiations.

Referring to the proposed special products, which were of interest to developing countries, he said the selection of such products must be made on the basis of self-declaration given that it was not possible to have multilaterally agreed criteria applicable across the board to all countries.

"The special products would need to be combined with special safeguard measures with suitable trigger mechanism in terms of both import volume and price in order to protect the interest of farmers," Shourie said.

He pointed out that there were about 35 crops in India on each of which around five million people were dependent, and more than 25 crops had an area of over one million hectares each.

PTI