EU to intensify lobbying on its plan opposed by India in WTO

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The EU has convened a meeting tomorrow in Geneva of key WTO members to "sell" its proposal seeking a multilateral commitment for elimination of duties on certain industrial goods, a move vehemently opposed by India.

"In fact, the European Union has convened the discussions tomorrow of the G-7 members and it wants to sell its proposal on the sectorals," Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Rajeev Kher said at a Ficci function here.

The G-7 grouping comprises the US, EU, India, Brazil, Japan, Australia and China.

The sectorals refer to a proposal of the developed countries, particularly the EU which seek to remove duties on specific sectors.

The discussions on the subject are part of the 10-year old Doha Round of negotiations under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for a multilateral deal to liberalise the world trade.

"Sectorals are considered as a major stumbling block," Kher, who is the head of the trade policy division in the Commerce Ministry, said here.

India''s stand has been that it should be left to the member countries to decide whether they want total elimination through so-called sectoral proposals under the non-agriculture market access (NAMA) pillar of the Doha talks.

It feels the sectorals should not at all be mandatory as the industrial base in developing countries is still fledgling as compared to the rich world.

In all, there are 14 products which are under various stages of discussion with respect to the proposal but three sectors are very aggressively being pursued by the US and EU.

These are chemicals, electronics and electrical equipment and industrial machinery.

On the demand from the rich nations for liberalising world trade in the remanufactured machinery (reman), Kher said, India should not oppose the proposal "for the sake of it." However, he said, the definition of ''reman'' should be made very clear.

"We do not know what is remanufacturing machinery. We need to define it first," he said.

While the developed countries want liberalisation in the ''reman'', there is a concern in the developing nations that the latter may become a dumping ground of electronic waste and discarded technology.

Tuesday 10 May 2011, 5:46 PM

Source: in.finance.yahoo.com