The World Trade Organisation (WTO) process needs to be strengthened and taken forward as India has a strategic interest in the functioning of the multilateral trade system, according to Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu.
Briefing members of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday on the outcome of WTO’s recently held Buenos Aires meeting, Mr. Prabhu said that India would host a mini-ministerial (meeting of a few WTO member nations) in February to further its position on the multilateral trade body and to pursue its interest in a fruitful manner. FICCI informed this in a statement.
In a separate meeting organised by the industry body CII, Mr. Prabhu spoke on the objective behind the mini-ministerial and stated, “if you want to make sure that WTO becomes relevant to times that are changing, then we must also incorporate into WTO some of the very emerging important issues.”
The Buenos Aires meeting ended in an impasse with the US blocking the demands of over 100 developing nations, including India and China, on food security issues. The US had also questioned the centrality of development in multilateral trade negotiations. Mr. Prabhu had earlier also said that India will be organising a meeting of some WTO members in February to get more support for food sovereignty and other issues including the ‘development agenda’ of the Doha Round talks.
Developed countries have been taking the lead in forming groups to initiate discussions on ‘new issues’ such as e-commerce, investment facilitation and proposed norms relating to small firms, while India and other developing nations are insisting that such issues should be taken up for negotiations at the multilateral-level only after resolving the ongoing Doha Round’s outstanding issues such as the ones on food security.
India to host mini-ministerial in Feb to take forward its position on multilateral trade talks
