Nath to visit Geneva to take WTO talks forward
WTO has swung into action to revive the stalled trade talks and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will go to Geneva this week as part of the consensus building exercise among the key players at the trade body.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: WTO has swung into action to revive the stalled trade talks and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will go to Geneva this week as part of the consensus building exercise among the key players at the trade body.
Apart from India, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has been mandated to hold one-on-one discussions with other key players the US, EU, Brazil, Japan and Australia to break the impasse after the collaspe of Mini-Ministerial at Geneva early this month.
"I will be going to Geneva this week to take consultation process forward," Nath said.
Elaborating, officials said that Nath will meet Lamy as part of the process by the WTO chief to build a consensus on key issues at the trade body among the member nations.
After collapse of Mini-Ministerial WTO Director-General was given two weeks to persuade the key players countries to make concessions to bring about convergence on the two contentious issues of agriculture and industrial tariffs.
ADVERTISEMENT
"If Lamy feels that key trading nations are nearing a consensus he might call another Mini-Ministerial in Geneva," officials added.Meanwhile, efforts are also on to bring about convergence by talking the issue to heads of government level at the G-8 summit at St Petersberg in Russia on Sunday is expected discuss this issue.
Apart from the leaders of G-8 industrialised nations, including US President George Bush, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Brazalian counterpart would be attending as special invitees.
Lamy has also been summoned to the meeting where the assembled heads of government are expected to broadly outline for how to take the Doha round forward.
ADVERTISEMENT
Apart from key trading nations, Lamy will also meet representatives of least developing countries. Sharp differences between developed and developing countries led to the collapse of the mini-ministerial in Geneva in which trade ministers of 60 WTO member countries participated.The mini-ministerial failed two days ahead of schedule as US adopted an adamant stand in cutting down the domestic support on agriculture, forcing developing countries led by India and Brazil to take a tough stand saying no compromise on agriculture would be done as it was an issue of subsistence and livelihood of poor farmers, sources said.
ADVERTISEMENT
While EU came closer to the developing countries' demand on cut in agriculture tariffs, the US did not budge on domestic subsidies to farmers.The US holds the key to break the impasse as unless Washington climbs down on the issue of cutting down trade distorting domestic support there could be no forward movement.
It was also unwilling to agree on giving developing countries to restrict imports of farm products that would harm their farmers while the declaration in Hong Kong provided for such measures.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
