INDIA is willing to sign a global trade deal, which it has torpedoed, if other World Trade Organization (WTO) members can agree to its parallel demand for concessions on stockpiling food, senior officials in New Delhi said 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 finalize 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 India’s trade ministry, referring to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) pact that was agreed on the Indonesian island of Bali last year.

    “We are totally committed to the TFA, and only asking for an agreement on food security,” said the official, who cannot be identified under briefing rules.

    Another trade official said: “We expect that the [WTO] director general will call a meeting in September and we are ready to sign the deal in September itself, provided TFA and food security issues are passed together. We are quite hopeful for the deal.”

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was on a visit to India, told Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier Friday that India’s refusal to sign the trade deal had undermined the country’s image.

    Several WTO member states voiced frustration after India’s demands led to the collapse of the first major global trade reform pact in two decades.

    (SD-Agencies)