G-15 To Evolve Common Stand On Wto Issues

We expect to see a thorough airing of views ... feelings on the investment agreement are running very strong ... there is bound to be an understanding of concerns ... How this will translate into action, well know in Singapore, but we expect some countries to stand firm, he said.

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda will represent India at the summit, which will also be attended by the prime ministers of Algeria, Jamaica, Malaysia, Senegal and the host, Zimbabwe. This will be Gowdas first trip abroad as the Prime Minister.

The economic summit is being held at a time when developing countries are struggling to make their concerns heard in a liberalising world. With the end of the Cold War, alternative summits of southern nations, like the G-15, almost died and Malaysia, Indonesia and India have struggled hard to infuse fresh life into them.

 

Even on the Harare summit, there was doubt until two weeks ago if Gowda would attend it because the quorum was not complete. That condition has been fulfilled now, but the external affairs ministry official fought shy of giving names of some other nations who were still not sure about attending it.

The official listed an ambitious agenda that the summit in Harare will discuss: the negative effects of globalisation on developing countries, unilateral actions with extra-territorial impact, international terrorism and efforts to combat it and the future role for the G-15 in a globalising world economy.

Globalisation does have its downside, the official said, adding that all these issues will be looked into in a North-South context.

He also explained that there was a lot of heartburn among a number of countries who did not agree with unilateral actions on trade and investment taken by some countries.

The US has said that it will apply sanctions against any country that trades with Cuba, Iran or Libya which are rogue nations by the US. A suit has already been slapped against a Canadian firm under this piece of legislation, called the Helms Burton Act.

The EU recently threatened to take the US to the WTO, saying that the Helms Burton Act violated the principles of free trade.

The official said the summit will also discuss the expansion of the organisation to incorporate more Asian and African countries.

Fifteen more countries from these continents were interested in joining the group, he added.