Cabinet Committee Meet On Wto Deferred

The meeting of the Cabinet committee on the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which was slated to be held today, has been deferred till Thursday. The meeting was scheduled to discuss India's strategy for the forthcoming ministerial meet in Doha slated for November 9-13.

Sources said the proposal sent to the Cabinet committee was in line with India's stand calling for addressing of implementation issues. India has also voiced its opinion against the launch of a new trade round.

They added that commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran would discuss the draft ministerial declaration and India's position on the issues mentioned in the draft. The general council of WTO also circulated a draft on implementation along with the ministerial text.

India has criticised the general council's attempts to address implementation concerns of developing countries which has divided the tirets (issues) into two annexures. India has sought a merger of the two annexures and also said these issues should be resolved within a specific timeframe.

Commerce department officials said India believes that of the 20-odd tirets mentioned in annexure-I, implementable decisions have been taken only with respect to three agreements. The other decisions are in the nature of urging members to take note of the issues and consider them, they added.

Last Friday, Maran had taken a hard stance on developed countries' demands to launch plurilateral negotiations on trade and investment and trade and competition policies. He had said that any attempt to include the two issues would result in a failure of the Doha ministerial.