US \\\'hopeful\\\' of WTO deal with India only hours before deadline

NEW DELHI, July 31 (Reuters): The United States said on Thursday it was hopeful that differences between India and much of the rest of the world over a major trade agreement could be resolved in time, with only hours remaining before the deal has to be signed.

New Delhi has insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidize and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organisation rules.

The WTO deal must be signed in Geneva on Thursday, and India's ultimatum has revived doubts about the future of the WTO as a negotiating body.

"I am an optimist, I am hopeful that within the period of today...there is a common ground that is found," U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, accompanying Secretary of State John Kerry during annual strategic talks with India, told NDTV.

India's new nationalist government has demanded a halt to a globally agreed timetable on new customs rules and said a permanent agreement on food stockpiling and subsidies aimed at supporting the poor must be in place at the same time, well ahead of a 2017 target agreed last December in Bali.

Kerry warned India it stood to lose if it refused to budge.

"Right now India has a four-year window where it's been given a safe harbor where nothing happens," he told NDTV.

"If they don't sign up and be part of the agreement, they will lose that and then (they will) be out of line or out of the compliance with the WTO."

Pritzker said serious efforts were underway on Thursday to save the deal, which proponents say could add $1 trillion to the global economy and create 21 million jobs.