New Delhi mini-ministerial meet helped in re-starting talks: WTO chief

India's initiative to organise a mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation has helped in re-starting talks on various issues in Geneva, WTO chief Roberto Azevedo has said.

Following collapse of talks in Argentina in December 2017, India organised a mini-ministerial meeting of about 45 WTO members here on March 19-20 to revitalise the multi-lateral trade body.

Appreciating India's initiative, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General in a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said: "Following the meeting in New Delhi, WTO members have now started conversations on many different issues".

The meeting, he said, has provided a great opportunity for the trade ministers to have a frank assessment of the results of eleventh Ministerial Conference, highest decision making body of the WTO, and discuss "our future work at the WTO".

"India has been one of the most important partners of the WTO and a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system, as once again evinced by the convening of this mini-ministerial meeting," he added.

This was the second mini-ministerial meeting being hosted by India. The first was in 2009.

The objective of the meeting was to initiate a free and frank discussion on various key issues and challenges facing the Geneva-based WTO.

The talks at the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference collapsed after the US went back on its commitment to find a permanent solution to the public food stockholding issue, a key matter for India.

The four-day conference in Argentina, which ended without a ministerial declaration or any substantive outcome, did manage to make some feeble progress on fisheries and e- commerce by agreeing to work programmes.