NEW DELHI: India and the US—the two countries held primarily responsible for the breakdown in multilateral trade talks of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last July—seem ready to do their bit to put the talks back on track.
Deputy US trade representative Demetrios Marantis is likely to visit New Delhi in August to thrash out differences with India on contentious issues of the ongoing Doha round, a government official has said. The idea is to try and reach some sort of consensus before trade ministers from key WTO member countries meet in India for an informal meeting in September.
“Both India and the US don’t want to be seen as countries wrecking the Doha round. Attempts are likely to be made to narrow differences over issues such as tariff protection for poor farmers and duty elimination for certain industrial goods in the bilateral meeting scheduled in August. This will improve the chances of the informal ministerial in New Delhi delivering some results,” the official said.
The New Delhi meeting will be followed by a G-20 leaders summit in Pittsburgh later in September. The WTO will then host a formal ministerial meeting, including trade ministers from all 153 member countries, in November-end. Members are expected to work towards speeding up the Doha round of negotiations, which was launched almost eight years back for further expanding market access in goods and services, by the end of the next calendar year.
Mr Marantis, during his visit, is likely to meet commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, senior officials from key ministries—including commerce, finance and agriculture—and industry representatives, the official said.
One of the reasons behind talks breaking down last July in Geneva was a disagreement between India and the US over the level of special protection to be given to poor farmers against a surge in agricultural imports.
Source : The Economic Times