New Delhi: India on October 22 outrightly rejected the Cancun draft as the starting point for future World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, terming it as the main cause for "stalemate" at the collapsed ministerial.

"September 13 draft (Cancun draft) cannot be the starting point of any discussion... It completely failed to gauge the mood at Cancun and in fact was contrary to the mood prevalent there. It was the main cause of the stalemate there," Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said.

The draft did not reflect the true picture at Cancun, Jaitley said, adding that agriculture held the key for any future negotiations and what was proposed in the draft in the farm sector was very "scary" for developing countries like India having not just economic but social ramifications.

He said the draft completely buried the development dimension of the Doha agenda and only furthered "development of the developed nations".

Some of the developed countries have mooted the idea that the draft floated at Cancun ministerial on September 13 can become the reference point for future discourse.

However, Jaitley said any WTO negotiations cannot be "just take and take" and India would adopt a give and take approach so as to maximise gains.

PTI