GENEVA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath Wednesday urged the United States to offer further cuts in its trade-distorting farm subsidies in order to achieve a breakthrough in the Doha Round trade negotiations.
"We'll be looking forward to better offers (from the United States) which are realistic," Nath told reporters ahead of a new day of intensive negotiations.
"It's a start of making offers, certainly we don't expect the start to be the end," he added.
Nath reiterated that the development needs of poor countries must be given full consideration in the negotiations, which were launched nearly seven years ago with a mandate to promote development.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab offered on Tuesday to limit the ceiling of U.S. farm subsidies to 15 billion U.S. dollars a year as a new push for the long-stalled talks.
The new offer was an improvement from Washington's previous offer of 17 billion U.S. dollars.
More than 30 trade ministers of WTO members kicked off crucial talks in Geneva on Monday, with an aim to make a breakthrough in the long-stalled Doha Round of global trade negotiations.
The Doha Round, launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, aims to slash subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to trade so as to help reduce poverty and spur economic growth in developing countries.
However, the round has missed repeated deadlines in the past seven years mainly due to differences between developing and developed countries over agriculture and non-agricultural market access.
