India, US to hold talks to bridge WTO differences
India and the United States are to meet soon in a bid to iron out differences over achieving a global trade accord, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said Thursday.
By PTI/UNI |
WASHINGTON: India and the United States are to meet soon in a bid to iron out differences over achieving a global trade accord, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said Thursday.
The bid to kick start the so-called Doha Round of talks among the World Trade Organisation (WTO) members was a "major issue" at a high level meeting in New York between American and Indian government and private sector officials. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez raised the deadlocked issue at the meeting while US Trade Representative Susan Schwab spoke to Nath separately.
"I said that we'd be happy to find ways of converging on our differences with the United States," Nath said.
"India is happy to engage in a dialogue and so we plan that sometime in the third week of November, we'll have a bilateral meet to move forward on this," he said.
The Doha Round of talks ground to a halt in July amid bitter differences, especially over the lack of concessions on agriculture products which held up negotiations on industrial goods and services.
The round of multilateral trade talks began in the Qatari capital Doha at the end of 2001, with the goal of reducing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to commerce and raising living standards in developing countries. But the negotiations have consistently been dogged by disputes between rich and poor nations, as well as among wealthy players such as the United States and the European Union.
The United States and India are part of the so-called Group of Six, including Australia, Brazil, the European Union and Japan, which failed to settle their trade spats in the middle of this year.
India and other developing countries are demanding deeper reductions in tariffs on agricultural imports levied by rich nations, as well as bigger cuts in farm subsidies which allegedly help farmers in the wealthy world to undercut their poor competitors.
Rich countries, like the United States, meanwhile, want key emerging nations such as Brazil and India to offer more open markets for industrial goods and services, such as banking and telecommunications.
Nath said the "basic difference" between the United States and India was on agriculture.
"They want agriculture market access for their subsidized products. It doesn't work," he said.
Asked how he expects to bridge the persistent difference, Nath said, "It is a question of negotiations, so we got to see.
"They have to understand that India's agriculture is subsistence agriculture but commerce."
Another Indian issue with the United States in the WTO talks is over "the reduction of tariff peaks and tariff escalations in NAMA," he said.
Non-agriculture market access (NAMA) refers to negotiations to cut tariffs on industrial goods. It covers liberalization of all manufacturing and industrial trade in sectors such as machinery, electronic goods, chemicals, textiles, wood and fish products.
The 149-member WTO's chief, Pascal Lamy, has urged governments to do all they can within the next six months to revive the stalled talks.
But Nath said that while completion of the Doha Round was important, "the content is very important."
The bid to kick start the so-called Doha Round of talks among the World Trade Organisation (WTO) members was a "major issue" at a high level meeting in New York between American and Indian government and private sector officials. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez raised the deadlocked issue at the meeting while US Trade Representative Susan Schwab spoke to Nath separately.
"I said that we'd be happy to find ways of converging on our differences with the United States," Nath said.
"India is happy to engage in a dialogue and so we plan that sometime in the third week of November, we'll have a bilateral meet to move forward on this," he said.
The Doha Round of talks ground to a halt in July amid bitter differences, especially over the lack of concessions on agriculture products which held up negotiations on industrial goods and services.
The round of multilateral trade talks began in the Qatari capital Doha at the end of 2001, with the goal of reducing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to commerce and raising living standards in developing countries. But the negotiations have consistently been dogged by disputes between rich and poor nations, as well as among wealthy players such as the United States and the European Union.
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The United States and India are part of the so-called Group of Six, including Australia, Brazil, the European Union and Japan, which failed to settle their trade spats in the middle of this year.
India and other developing countries are demanding deeper reductions in tariffs on agricultural imports levied by rich nations, as well as bigger cuts in farm subsidies which allegedly help farmers in the wealthy world to undercut their poor competitors.
Rich countries, like the United States, meanwhile, want key emerging nations such as Brazil and India to offer more open markets for industrial goods and services, such as banking and telecommunications.
Nath said the "basic difference" between the United States and India was on agriculture.
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"They want agriculture market access for their subsidized products. It doesn't work," he said.
Asked how he expects to bridge the persistent difference, Nath said, "It is a question of negotiations, so we got to see.
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"They have to understand that India's agriculture is subsistence agriculture but commerce."
Another Indian issue with the United States in the WTO talks is over "the reduction of tariff peaks and tariff escalations in NAMA," he said.
Non-agriculture market access (NAMA) refers to negotiations to cut tariffs on industrial goods. It covers liberalization of all manufacturing and industrial trade in sectors such as machinery, electronic goods, chemicals, textiles, wood and fish products.
The 149-member WTO's chief, Pascal Lamy, has urged governments to do all they can within the next six months to revive the stalled talks.
But Nath said that while completion of the Doha Round was important, "the content is very important."
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