India will not accept any change in approach to Doha talks: Sharma

Outlining its stand on the negotiations for finalising the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, the government today said any new approach proposed for discussions would not be acceptable to India.

“The focus should be to re-energise and not re-invent,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said. He was referring to the newly-proposed methodolology by some countries to skip the discussions on modalities.

The approach followed so far in the negotiations has been to get the member-countries to agree on modalities which include the ways for cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods, reducing farm subsidies and gradually eliminating export subsidies. Currently, negotiating groups bring out these draft modalities on which the member countries should agree.

However, recently there has been a demand for a new approach to the negotiations, by skipping the modalities stage and directly notifying individual member commitments.

“These new approaches are all euphemisms for getting members to reveal where their sensitivities lie. This is not acceptable to India. There must first be agreement on modalities,” the minister said.

He also added that much has been invested over the years for preparing the draft texts of Non-Agricultural Market Access (Nama) and these must be the basis on which further negotiations are held.

Sharma also said that he was looking forward to the next meeting of global trade ministers to revive the trade talks. The meeting, to be held in India in September, would include representatives from the US, EU and other groups.

“Technical discussions at the WTO will resume this month. By the end of July, we can expect to have the road map for the negotiations. Full-fledged negotiations will most probably resume in September,” he said.

Sharma also urged the countries to do away with protectionist measures in the wake of the economic turmoil, as it would deepen the crisis further and extend the recovery process.

According to the World Bank, around 78 trade measures have been implemented since the onset of the economic crisis. However, 66 measures out of these involved trade restrictions. While full-fledged negotiations are likely to resume, a quick closure of the talks seems unlikely, given the large number of issues that remain unresolved, the minister said.

The ongoing round of trade talks had begun in Doha eight years back. The discussions, however, faced setback owing to sharp differences on issues like agricultural subsidies and market access between the developed and the developing countries.