Updated on Thursday, July 02, 2009, 16:17 IST

Chicago, July 02: India and the US need to resolve their differences on issues of agriculture and industrial tariffs under the Doha trade negotiations to avoid a breakdown in talks, an international trade expert has said.

India and the US need to resolve some of their differences "bilaterally first and reach a resolution so that later there is no breakdown of talks," Mark Nguyen, Principal at international trade consultancy firm MDN Trade LLC told reporters here.

Nguyen said if India and the US do not resolve their differences, it could hamper movement in the talks and "take us back where we were".

The Doha round of trade talks were launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital. The talks collapsed in July last year at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, mainly due to differences between India and the US over the issue of special safeguard - a mechanism that would allow developing countries to raise farm tariffs to protect poor farmers from a surge in imports.

While developed and developing countries are keen to resume the Doha talks and take the deal to a conclusion this year, Nguyen said "2010 is more likely" when the negotiations would restart.

With new governments in place in New Delhi and Washington since the collapse of talks in July, there is need for "political will" to ensure that the talks move forward.

Bureau Report