India to soon finalise Doha round work programme, says official

NEW DELHI: India will soon finalise its work programme which will be discussed as part of the long-pending agenda of Doha round of talks at the next WTO meet in Nairobi in December, a Commerce Ministry official said today.

"We are working to finalise the work programme for the Doha round by the end of July. My most of the attention is on market access issues. I hope we will have some reform of rules as well on the agenda for the next WTO ministerial meeting," said Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, J S Deepak.

He was speaking at the inauguration of 2-day International Conference on Trade Remedy Measures, organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).

After notching up a major victory on food security last year at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India wants to push for the long-pending Doha agenda.

The Doha round of negotiations, launched in 2001, has been virtually stalled since July 2008. It collapsed due to differences between the rich and the developing nations, including India, mainly at the level of protection for farmers in developing countries and duty cut on industrial goods.

There are a number of pending issues under the Doha round, which India would like to bring to the table in Nairobi. It includes issues related to agriculture (export subsidies, cotton and fishery subsidies), intellectual property rights, market access and services.

The rich nations are asking for a significant reduction in industrial good tariffs and further strengthening of patent laws. India also wants to resolve issues of the least developed countries (LDCs).

Talking about trade remedial measures such as anti-dumping duty, Deepak said that with the slowdown in global economy, dumping of goods will not only continue, but also grow.

"We are one of the largest users of anti-dumping instruments, but I do not see any conflict in this because if the instrument is properly used, there is no way it leads to protectionism," he said.