Hong Kong, Dec. 16: Commerce minister Kamal Nath gave US trade representative Robert Portman and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson some food for thought and a lesson in grass-roots democracy today with a description of the plight of the impoverished peasants in his parliamentary constituency, Chhindwara.

In a discussion at the WTO green room, Nath took up the issue of the huge subsidies that the EU and the US were doling out to a few thousand farmers, while millions of peasants worldwide were hit due to depressed prices.

He spoke of the debt-ridden cotton farmers in Chhindwara, who were committing suicide because of the low prices that they received for their crops.

Nath is being seen by both Portman and Mandelson as one of the major hurdles to the ongoing WTO negotiations. Portman has even said that Nath “holds the key to the current round”.

Mandelson and Nath are literally slugging it out at the WTO negotiations here. Mandelson has been singling out Nath, who seems to be enjoying his role. “I have not come here for a beauty contest but to safeguard the livelihood of 650 million farmers,” he said when asked why Mandelson was so uncomfortable with him.

“Mandelson has the right to ask for anything but I have the right to refuse,” he quipped.