Negotiators warn of consequences over India’s refusal to agree to the deadline for wrapping up the trade facilitation agreement A day after the collapse of efforts in Geneva to strike an eleventh-hour compromise to salvage the first deal in the 19-year history of the World Trade Organization (WTO), India stood firm on Friday, dismissing dire warnings by rich nations over the future of the multilateral forum. At the same time, India also offered to help find a negotiated solution to its proposals on food security stockholdings that led to WTO’s failure to meet a 31 July deadline for wrapping up the trade facilitation agreement (TFA). Negotiators in Geneva warned of consequences over India’s refusal to agree to the deadline that would have taken the TFA, aimed at simplifying customs procedures and cutting transaction costs, into the WTO rulebook. The talks remained deadlocked after New Delhi stuck to its stand that nations must simultaneously find a permanent solution to proposals on food security, which it says are the priority of poorer countries

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