World Economic Forum at Davos: India to oppose pluriltateral agreement

NEW DELHI: India will oppose any attempts by developed countries to sign a limited market-opening pact and also call for a check on rising protectionism at the meeting of trade ministers from key WTO member countries at Davos later this week.

Switzerland is hosting a meeting of trade ministers from select countries that include India, China, Brazil, the US and the EU on Saturday on the sidelines of the on-going World Economic Forum at Davos to assess the impact of the economic turmoil on trade and discuss the future of the WTO.

“We have got reports that some developed members are talking about a plurilateral pact in services. We are yet to know the details, but principally we are against plurilateralism within the multilateral framework of the WTO,” an Indian government official told ET.

A pluriltateral agreement involves a few countries, while a multilateral pact includes all countries that are members of a global organisation, in this case the WTO.

In the absence of a breakthrough in the on-going Doha round of global trade talks that aims to open up markets in both goods and services for all 153 member countries, a number of members, led by the US, have been talking about limited trade opening pacts in select sectors involving just a few important countries.

Last week, Australia hosted a meeting of 16 WTO members that included the EU, the US, Japan, Chile, Honk Kong and even Pakistan, but excluded India, Brazil, China and South Africa, where the US proposed negotiating a plurilateral services agreement.

The Doha talks have reached an impasse as developing countries like India, China and Brazil have refused to give in to the US demand of opening up their markets more than others.