New Delhi: Senior BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader Arun Jaitley today (Aug 3, 2004) said that the Framework WTO Agreement was "disturbing" as it had left very little bargaining options in tariff negotiations for developing countries like India.

"My first reading of the draft has disturbed me, both on content as also on India's negotiating strategy," Jaitley, who led Indian delegation as Commerce Minister at the Cancun Ministerial, said.

"Conceding to the strengthening of Blue Box, no discipline on Green Box and agreeing to Singapore issues leaves India with little bargaining options when tariffs are negotiated," Jaitley who successfully articulated India's viewpoint at Cancun, said.

Green Box pertains to subsidies, which are permissible and are not targeted at products and include direct income support for a farmer that is not related to production levels or prices. Blue Box includes those subsidies given to farmers to limit production.

"We have agreed to a principle, a formula for agriculture tariff reduction as per which those countries with higher tariff will have to make maximum reductions. This obviously means that India which has high farm tariffs will have to reduce more than the developed nations," he said.

"India has made firm commitment about strengthening of the Blue Box in agriculture and about negotiations on one of the four Singapore issues, trade facilitation and delinked our own interest on market access in agriculture where tariff rates are to be negotiated on a future date," he added.