India to host Doha meet in Sept

WTO chief has confirmed his participation.

Happy with Commerce Minister Anand Sharma’s efforts to revive the stalled Doha multilateral trade talks, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy has confirmed his participation at the trade ministers’ meeting being hosted by India in September.

“Yes, Lamy has confirmed his participation at the ministerial meeting in the first week of September,” a commerce ministry official said.

The WTO chief is expected to play a referee’s role in his attempt to bridge the divide between the developing and developed countries on market opening that each side is willing to offer for reaching a deal.

“The WTO Director-General has expressed his satisfaction on the initiative of the commerce and industry minister to organise the ministerial meeting,” the official said.

Trade ministers from around 30 key countries, including from the G-20 (a grouping of developing nations), are likely to be present at the meeting. It is also likely to have representation from the developed world such as the US and the European Union.

India, Brazil, South Africa and China are the members of the G-20 representing interest of the developing countries.

While Sharma has been mobilising the world opinion for “re-energising” the WTO talks, the opposition, including the BJP and the CPI-M, are raising the pitch against what they call “change in India’s stance”.

Both the parties raised the issue in Parliament last week accusing the government of working under pressure from the developed countries and changing the country’s stand that it would not compromise farmers’ interest in the multilateral agreement.