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India calls for two-stage process to conclude Doha trade talks

04/06/2011    158

Geneva: India Tuesday called for two-stage process to conclude the moribund Doha trade negotiations, stressing those members focus on issues concerning the poorest countries and developmental priorities in the first stage. The second stage should address all other outstanding issues to conclude the Doha Round "at some future date", said India’s trade envoy to the WTO Jayant Dasgupta. He said this approach will help finalise the "early harvest" package by December. 

Several developing countries like China, Brazil and South Africa have concurred with India. "In these rather uncertain times, the heartening thing to note today is that there is growing consensus that the Early Harvest package has to necessarily include all LDC (least developed countries) issues and some other issues which have a strong development component, for instance the implementation issues (raised by developing countries) in Cancun," Dasgupta told members at the World Trade Organisation.

LDCs want duty-free and quota-free market access in industrialised countries, particularly in the US. Besides, they want steep reduction in cotton subsidies provided by the US and the EU. 

At an informal trade negotiations committee meeting, Dasgupta cautioned against expanding the list of issues for "early harvest" beyond the LDC concerns. If every member places their demands to be included in the early harvest, it would create difficulties in reaching a conclusion by December, Dasgupta said. 

With only 75 working days left for the eighth WTO ministerial meeting in December, India urged members to be "pragmatic," maintaining that all efforts should be made for delivering the LDCs and other developmental issues. Developing countries have underscored the need for addressing the developmental issues on a priority basis instead of making the agenda heavier.

June 1st, 2011

Source: Manorama Online

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