New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) India’s Commerce Minister Kamal Nath Thursday hoped that the global trade talks would resume soon, notwithstanding the collapse this week of a mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva. “I am hopeful that the process will restart again,” Kamal Nath told a press conference here after his return from Geneva, where Indian interlocutors held their ground on issues like cut in farm subsidies by rich countries, among other issues.

“India stands ready whenever the process resumes,” he said, while adding that he was not sure when the WTO will be able to hold fresh negotiations among member nations to set the agenda for concluding the Doha Development Round of global trade talks.

The main reason for the collapse of the talks was the differences over the special safeguards mechanism - a provision that permits developing countries to guard against sudden surges in imports or when commodity prices decline.