G-4 ministerial meet likely to take place in mid May

New Delhi: The G-4 group at WTO —s India, Brazil, the European Union and the US — are planning a ministerial meeting in mid-May to assess the progress made in the official level negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and give further directions to the deliberations. In a communication sent to WTO director general Pascal Lamy following the G-4 ministerial meeting in New Delhi on April 12, the four members expressed their intention to hold a series of official-level and ministerial meetings over the next few weeks to work towards conclusion of the Doha round by the year-end.

The letter, signed by Indian trade minister Kamal Nath, Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and US trade representative Susan Schwab, said that the four ministers were conscious of their responsibility to facilitate consensus amongst the wider WTO membership and would work with a view to contributing to the decision-making process of the negotiating groups in Geneva in a timely manner. The G-4 ministers, at their last meeting in New Delhi, had attempted to break the dead-lock in the on-going WTO negotiations. While the four ministers were positive that in the next few months all required numbers would fall in place and deal could be sealed by the year-end.

In the letter, the four ministers added that they had instructed their officials to expedite their work and to meet as often as required to achieve the above goals. “We have agreed to meet in mid-May to assess the progress made and to give further directions to the senior officials on the negotiations,” the letter said. The venue and date of the meeting is yet to be decided, sources said.

The Doha round is being undertaken to frame multilateral rules for further liberalisation of trade in agricultural and industrial goods and opening up of the services sector.