Developing states oppose WTO rebate

10 March, 2007

GENEVA: Unions from developing countries demanded on Friday that their governments resist pressure from the European Union, the United States and others for deep cuts to industrial tariffs in global free trade talks.

Rich nations, which are under pressure to slash farm subsidies and tariffs, have called for concessions in industrial goods from developing states as a condition for giving ground on agriculture in the negotiations. A group of 10 developing countries, officially called the NAMA-11 and including India, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Egypt, has insisted poorer states will cut manufacturing tariffs only by a much smaller amount than developed countries.

But trade unions such as Brazil