WTO should capitalise on success of Bali meeting: Sharma

India wants the WTO to capitalise on the success of the ministerial meeting in Bali and move ahead with the Doha development agenda for a global trade deal.

The issues were discussed during the meeting of Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo here on the sidelines of World Economic Forum Annual meeting.

Both the leaders took stock of the progress of post-Bali programme of WTO negotiations.

"We must capitalise on the momentum gained in Bali and push ahead with the work programmes that we agreed to establish on the Doha Development Agenda and food security," Sharma said.

Overcoming a string of failures over the years, the WTO reached a landmark agreement in the Bali meeting in December last year that can help boost global trade by $1 trillion, while taking on board concerns of countries like India to protect its food security scheme providing subsidised grains to the poor.

Congratulating WTO's chief on the Bali success, Sharma said that all the members worked together, showed flexibilities where required and demonstrated the willingness to work for the greater good of the multilateral trading system.

Azevedo is coming to India next week to address a session on trade in Bengaluru. He will also have discussions with Sharma and senior officials in the capital city of Karnataka.

Although the WTO succeeded on a few issues in the Bali meeting last year, the Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001 have remained virtually stalled due to differences between the rich and the developing nations mainly on the level of protection for farmers in developing countries.