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The Commerce Secretary, Shri S.N. Menon said that the WTO negotiations launched at Doha in 2001 are entering a crucial phase. He said that the frame work agreement decision reached in Geneva in July 2004 has given much needed fillip to the ongoing negotiations and the next few months would witness intense negotiating activities in the run up to the next WTO Ministerial Conference. He was speaking at the workshop for State government officials on WTO issues organized by the Ministry of Commerce and industry, here today.
Shri Menon outlined India’s priorities in the negotiations on agriculture as removal of trade distorting subsidies by developed countries, ensuring adequate protection to the livelihood concerns of poor subsistence farmers, and to safeguard food security, livelihood and rural development concerns. On Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), India wants to address the issues of tariff peaks, tariff escalation in developed countries so that developing countries can access the market in developed countries. He underscored the need for the state governments to play an increasingly proactive role in the negotiations to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments and to evolve institutional mechanisms to implement the obligations assumed by India.
The one day workshop covering the areas of agriculture, NAMA and development issues is attended by senior government officials from all the state governments and the Union territories. Shri Prabir Sengupta, Director of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in his welcome address said that trade distorting subsidies in agriculture by developed countries create a serious imbalance adversely affecting the developing countries. The huge subsidies provided by the developed countries to their farmers enable them to export their agricultural products causing the international prices to remain artificially low as they do not reflect the resource costs. “Over the years, the terms of trade are becoming adverse against the agriculture based developing countries and we need to correct this situation,” he said.
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