India defiant as World Trade Organisation battle rolls on in Bali Indian commerce minister Anand Sharma speaks at WTO ministerial meeting in Nusa Dua on Wednesday India refused to back down on Wednesday from its threat to block the first global trade deal in a generation as efforts to negotiate a compromise accelerated. In a defiant opening speech to the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meeting in Bali, Anand Sharma, India's commerce minister, called for "historical imbalances in trade rules" to be redressed. He said India was determined to renegotiate a compromise solution on food security that it had agreed last month in Geneva. Food security is essential for 4bn people of the world. India and other developing countries have been trying to renegotiate the WTO rules applied to government programmes to provide food to the poor. The discussions in the run-up to Bali have centred on a compromise that would see India and others gain immunity from any WTO action for the next four years while a permanent solution is negotiated. India is trying to extend that period and is increasingly finding itself isolated among developing nations in the 159-member WTO, many of which fear Delhi is threatening a bigger deal for the sake of scoring political points at home. After Mr Sharma's speech, Karel De Gucht, the EU trade commissioner, warned that "the storm clouds of failure are right above us." Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO's director-general, called meetings on Wednesday to try to find a solution. He was asked, at a meeting of ministers, to draft a compromise text, which he was expected to present to members on Thursday. The impasse over food security has threatened the WTO's attempt to restore its credibility as a venue for trade negotiations, 12 years after the launch of the Doha Round of talks. If we do not get a deal in Bali, then we face the risk that rich countries focus on trade deals between themselves, thereby excluding lower income countries who need this trade the most. Kofi Annan, Africa Progress Panel, Ministers argued that agreement would set the stage for a bigger discussion about the state of the Doha Round and how to proceed. But without a deal, ministers and analysts said the WTO's credibility would suffer another major blow. But, he added, "Without success this week, that task becomes very difficult." Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general who chairs the Africa Progress Panel, a think-tank that lobbies for policies to benefit the continent, also urged ministers to reach a deal in Bali. A deal to cut red tape at borders, he said, "should be a low-hanging fruit to benefit millions of people all around the world" and would be of particular benefit to Africa, where the complexity of getting goods across national boundaries is seen as a major barrier to trade and development. More to the point, such a deal is the best hope we have for keeping global trade discussions alive.