Tuesday, December 6 2005 18:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India today (Dec 06, 2005) categorically said it will not agree to any deal which displaced its farmers in any way at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial next week.

"India cannot agree to a situation which leads to displacement of our farmers...We have to ensure that subsidised cheap imports do not flood our markets and displace our farmers," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters here.

Nath, who is leading country's delegation at the sixth Ministerial conference from December 13-18, said there was a broad consensus among political parties on the issue of engagement with the world economy.

While protecting food and livelihood concerns of country's farmers, Nath said Government also wanted to secure their future interests by ensuring developed nations gave fair market access.

He said the strategy would also be the same for Non-Agriculture Market Access where India wanted free and fair access for its goods in which it was competitive.

Pointing that the Draft Ministerial text did not have adequate development content, Nath said developed world must not forget that developing countries came into the Round as it was supposed to focus on development dimension.

"The Draft Ministerial text does not have adequate development content. No provision which displaces millions of poor farmers is acceptable to us," Nath said, adding that attempt now was to bring out some package for Least Developed Countries and developing countries and move ahead from July Framework.

Senior officials from Commerce, Agriculture, Textiles and Finance Ministries besides representatives of industry and non-governmental organisations would be in the delegation.