India wants to discuss cotton trade at WTO...

India wants to participate in the ongoing negotiations between the US and a lobby group of African nations on cotton trade in the context of Doha round of talks.

A group of four African countries, known as Cotton 4, comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, has been engaging with the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on issues related to subsidies provided by them to their cotton producers.

“We have written to the US to be a part of the negotiations. But there has been no reply yet,” R Gopalan, additional secretary, Commerce Ministry, said at a function organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

India is the second largest producer of the commodity in the world. It is expected to produce about 22.17 million bales of 170 kg each in 2008-09.

Experts said the move would help India put pressure on the US to reduce subsidies. “We should have done this earlier,” said Bishwajit Dhar, head of Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

For the multilateral trade talks at the WTO, various nations join hands to form lobby groups on issues of their interest. For instance, India is a part of groups like G-20 and G-33, which are interested in farm products. It is also part of Nama-11, which has interests in industrial goods.

Cotton 4 has been proposing that subsidies given to the US cotton farmers should be reduced by 82.2 per cent.

... defends stand on toy imports

Rejecting China’s charge that India was resorting to trade barriers in violation of WTO rules, New Delhi today said the steps to check import surge from the neighbouring country were in line with the multilateral trade norms.

The issues of anti-dumping measures and safeguard duties by India came up for discussion between a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan and Revenue Secretary P V Bhide.

“They (Chinese) are concerned over anti-dumping and safeguard measures stating they are not in line with the WTO agreement,” an official said.

After his talks with Zhong yesterday, Commerce secretary G K Pillai had said the safeguard duties on import of Chinese goods and anti-dumping measures taken by India conformed to multilateral trade rules.