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India and the European union (EU) have agreed to find areas of common interest in the ongoing negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and to work for the progress of the Doha Round so as to have a positive outcome at the next Ministerial Conference of the WTO scheduled for December 2005 in Hong Kong. This was indicated during the bilateral discussions that Mr. Peter Mandelson, Trade Commission, European Commission, had with Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, here this morning. Later, in his address on “India-EU Strategic Partnership: Steps Ahead”, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) here, Shri Kamal Nath said: “We look forward to the leadership of Mr. Mandelson to see that the development dimension should remain at the heart of the WTO negotiations and that the EU should take a leadership role in resolving the implementation related concerns of the developing countries, in operationalising the S&DT clauses and in ensuring that principle of ‘less than full reciprocity’ is applied without fail while according concessions to the developing countries”. Shri Kamal Nath expressed the hope that the Doha Work Programme would now get the necessary impetus and reach early fruition, leading to substantial market access for developing countries in agriculture, non-agricultural products as well as the key areas of services.
Earlier, during his bilateral meeting with Peter Mandelson which lasted more than two hours and was attended, among others, by Shri S.N. Menon, Commerce Secretary, Shri Ashok Jha, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (IPP), Shri Abhijit Sengupta, Additional Secretary (Europe), Shri G.K. Pillai, Additional Secretary (Trade Policy Division), Ministry of Commerce & Industry and members of Mr. Mandelson‘s delegation, Shri Kamal Nath raised the issue of serious non-trade barriers faced by Indian exporters in the EU arising out of cumbersome rules, regulations and procedures, ever increasing stringency of standards and frequent use of trade defence instruments.
“India seems to have borne the brunt of the EU’s Trade Defence Actions which affect 3-1/2% of Indian exports to the EU, as against the average global incidence in the EU of only ½%. It is rather odd that a developing country like India should be facing 9 out of the 20 Anti-Subsidy actions in force in EU. We would earnestly request Mr. Mandelson to see that the Article 15 of the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement and Article 27 of the WTO’s Anti-Subsidy and Countervailing Duties Agreement are fully operationalised and not left as mere ‘best endeavour’ clauses, with least endeavour to implement them”, Shri Kamal Nath said. Mr. Mandelson informed that the EC would soon announce its decision not to destroy contaminated consignments but to return them to the exporting country, thereby resolving a long standing issue which India had been raising with the EU.
Shri Kamal Nath also urged Mr. Mandelson to ensure that India’s textile exports were not adversely affected due to arbitrary fixation of graduation criterion in the EU’s new GSP (generalized system of preferences) scheme, adding that the textile sector supported over 80 million people in India through direct and indirect employment and contributed over 27% of India’s total exports to the EU. He further pointed out that India suffered in the last 2 to 3 years due to arbitrary administration of the GSP scheme, wherein zero duty concession on 2500 tariff lines was extended to India’s competitors.
During Shri Kamal Nath’s one-to-one meeting with Mr. Mandelson, it was also agreed that India and the EU would have a bilateral investment agreement. Mr. Mandelson underscored the need to institute early warning system to identify and solve the irritants between India and the EU. “There should be a mechanism to know each other and to foster trade partnership”, he said.
“The EU is today India’s largest trading partner, and with over 30 billion dollars worth of trade, it accounts for 20% of India’s global trade. By contrast, India’s share in the EU’s global trade is a meager 1%. It is evident that there is considerable untapped potential in our business relationship”, Shri Kamal Nath said at the FICCI meet.
SB/SS/MRS
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