WTO deal not dead, can be inked in September if concerns addressed: India

India is willing to sign a global trade deal, which it has torpedoed, if other World Trade Organisation members can agree to its parallel demand for concessions on stockpiling food, senior officials in New Delhi said on Friday. The deadline to sign the WTO pact to ease worldwide customs rules lapsed at midnight in Geneva on Thursday after India demanded that the group also finalise an agreement giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by WTO rules. It was not immediately clear if the latest comments by Indian officials would open a window for the deal to be resurrected. In Geneva, a trade diplomat from a developing nation said: "The trust that countries have in what India says is going to be significantly diminished." The officials in New Delhi said the deal could be signed as early as September. "It is ridiculous to say the Bali deal is dead," said a senior official at the trade ministry, referring to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) pact that was agreed on the Indonesian island of Bali last year,according to NDTV.