India slams rich nations

BANGALORE, AUG 17: India today lambasted developed nations' thinly disguised efforts' to impede free flow of trade by insisting on inclu...

BANGALORE, AUG 17: India today lambasted developed nations8217; thinly disguised efforts8217; to impede free flow of trade by insisting on inclusion of new issues in the World Trade Organisation agenda and asked the G-15 developing countries to reject such attempts.

8220;Trade negotiations cannot continue to be an exercise in which we yield market access even as access obtained by us is thwarted or undermined,8221; Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde told G-15 trade ministers at a two-day meeting which got under way here today.

Both Hegde and Dr Ahmed Goweily, Trade Minister of Egypt, which is the chairman of the G-15, exhorted the group to evolve a coordinated approach to the ministerial conference at Seattle in November with the latter asking member-states not to allow divergence of views to obscure their vision.

8220;Where our concerns are at stake, we should unitedly strive to strike a positive influence over the Seattle outcome,8221; Hegde said while underscoring the need for a common strategy on tackling implementation delays by the developed nations on existing WTO agreements.

The two-day meeting is a fallout of the decision by the G-15 nations at their Montego Bay Jamaica summit of February to undertake further consultations on core issues facing the developing nations as a whole.

The Asian nations led by India, Malaysia and Indonesia are attempting to impress upon Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina the need to thwart attempts by the US, European Union and Japan to begin a fresh round of trade talks under the aegis of the Seattle conference.

Dr Ahmed Goweily noted that 8220;coordinating our positions is of utmost importance at various stages of negotiations, starting from setting the negotiation agenda until its final conclusion.8221;

Story continues below this ad

He told the group that the 8220;preferential treatment given to developing countries since the Marakkesh Accord did not stand for a well-defined development dimension that would help integrate our economies in the world trading system and extract maximum benefits from it8221;.

After the inaugural session, the high-level Indian team and 55 foreign delegates went into a conclave to discuss key issues likely to crop up in the Seattle Conference.

Sessions relating to implementation delays on existing agreements, agriculture subsidies, trade in services, trips and trims review this year, technical trade barriers review and sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures are being held.

Though no joint statement is expected after the two-day talks, officials maintained that efforts were to have a better understanding of each other8217;s positions on various matters.