Kerry hopes to push India on WTO trade deal as deadline looms

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is on a three-day visit to India, today met minister of finance and defence Arun Jaitley, hoping to get India agree to a WTO trade deal without compromising on the US stance against India's demand for easing restrictions on stockpiling food for the poor.

Kerry, who has been dubbed as a failure in most of the Obama administration's chaotic foreign policy missions, including in Ukraine and Israel, is hoping that India would drop its strident objections and allow the WTO trade deal to move forward.

US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker was reported as saying in an interview in Mumbai with PTI that she remained "optimistic" New Delhi would change its stance despite its objections to restricting the country's ability to stockpile food for the poor.

New Delhi says the trade deal should complement agricultural programmes of most developing nations that aim to safeguard growers' livelihoods and provide affordable nourishment to the millions of poor and vulnerable.

But WTO rules currently allow governments to stockpile food only if they acquire those stocks, and sell from them, at market prices.

Otherwise, subsidies provided through such programmes should not exceed the 10 per cent annual ceiling of the value of total agricultural production that WTO has prescribed for developing nations. India, home to a third of the world's extremely poor, according to the World Bank, says restrictions on the so-called "trade-distorting" subsidies amount to an assault on its ability to provide for its neediest citizens.

India has said it won't sign off on the WTO trade-facilitation deal unless the Geneva-based body loosens restrictions on the ability of countries to subsidise farmers and stockpile food. India says it needs more leeway to protect its poor citizens.

Meanwhile, rumours are spreading that some countries are planning a "half deal" on the trade protocol without the required 160 member governments approving it.

A failure to get India to agree to the trade facilitating measures, first agreed on in December, would be a blow to US diplomacy as the US and Indian delegates engage in their annual strategic dialogue.

John Kerry, who arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday evening for the US's first high-level talks with India's new government, is pinning hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-business image to win back India's support to the trade deal.