TOKYO, May 7: Japan and India agreed Monday to seek change to a recent WTO proposal on farm trade because it “lacked balance,” Japanese officials said. The agreement was reached in a telephone conversation between Japanese Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, the officials said.

The proposal last week by Crawford Falconer, the chairman of the WTO's special committee on agriculture, said in part that the number of “sensitive” products that would be excluded from drastic tariff cuts should be limited to no more than five per cent of the total. Rice in Japan belongs to the sensitive category.

The two ministers agreed that the proposal “lacked balance” in that it was tough on certain WTO members, the officials said.

Matsuoka told Nath that the proposal presented tough terms on which Japan was to liberalise farm trade while it offered relatively soft terms to the United States for slashing its farm subsidies, according to the officials.

He was quoted as proposing to Nath that they “continue acting together on the matter.” Nath said India was prepared to issue a statement in WTO talks that the proposal was unfair for developing nations, officials said.—AFP