India on Monday warned that failure to break new ground in WTO talks and growth of protectionist tendencies in some advanced countries was impeding global trade and asked the world community to play a ‘‘pro-active’’ role for the success of the Hong Kong ministerial in December.After the failure of the Cancun ministerial in 2003, the world was eagerly looking towards the Hong Kong ministerial for putting Doha agenda ‘‘back on track’’, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said.Speaking at the World Bank development committee on Sunday night, he said it was imperative that the global community reached a consensus on ambitious developmental outcomes at Hong Kong.‘‘Maybe, time has come for abandoning, well-known positions which had recognised that international trade is an engine for development and cautioned against trade barriers and trade distorting subsidies,’’ the FM said.He also asked the World Bank to play an intensive role in protecting interests of developing countries. The bank and the international community would have to play a pro-active role, with respect to agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA), in Hong Kong if the Doha round is to be completed by 2006, he said.Chidambaram said countries that continue such policy should be aware of the perilous impact their decisions would have on the security of millions of subsistence farmers in poor and developing nations including India.‘‘We also need to work towards ambitious outcomes in the services sector where global negotiations have not made enough headway; restricting the movement of professional across the world is unnatural and, ultimately, to the detriment of developed countries themselves,’’ he said.
