Concerns of developing countries brought centrestage

Tuesday, 16 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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CANCUN: India is not too disheartened by the failure of the five-day WTO Ministerial Conference here in arriving at a consensus as it brought to the fore a deeper bonding between developing nations. "The fact that we brought the concerns of developing countries to centre-stage reflects the success of Cancun," Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley told the media here Sunday. Jaitley attributed the success of India's stand in part to the broad-based consultations held with political parties, trade unions and industry associations among others to arrive at a national stand. "India was able to carry the debate into the camp of those with whom it was negotiating and the coalitions forged on agriculture and the Singapore issues remained intact till the end," said Jaitley. He said the coalition of 22 developing countries (G-22) on agriculture had left its impact on the WTO agenda. During the five-day meet at this Mexican resort, the rich and the developing countries failed to bridge the divide on reduction of agriculture and export subsidies and providing more market access. As a result, experts feel the gains of globalisation will not reach the poor nations or help lift 144 million people above the poverty line. The four Singapore issues of trade and investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation remained another major area of discord with developing nations including India and China remaining unconvinced about starting negotiations till ambiguities were cleared and there was explicit consensus among all 146 WTO members. "India did not yield on any issue at Cancun and engaged pro-actively in the negotiations," said Jaitley. Several ministers observed that coalitions at Cancun, on both agriculture and Singapore issues, had deepened the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system. On the failure of the Cancun meet to arrive at a consensus, Jaitley said, "Trade negotiations are an ongoing process. There is never a last day as far as the calendar of trade talks is concerned. "I am sure that, notwithstanding a consensus eluding us here, trade negotiations will continue where we will effectively put across India's concerns, as in the last few days in Cancun." Indian industry lobbies Monday lauded Jaitley's success in projecting the country's concerns at Cancun and in forging alliances with other developing countries based on their common stand on agriculture and the Singapore issues. "Cancun failed because the developed countries misunderstood the mood of the world. They misunderstood that the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America wanted to express their views and it was, in fact, Africa that rose in revolt against the Singapore issues of investment, trade facilitation and government procurement," said the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in a statement in New Delhi. "Strangely, agriculture did not break Cancun, the Singapore issues broke Cancun. India did not break Cancun, Africa broke Cancun. Gratifyingly, the G-15 and G-21 alliances of the developing countries remained intact right through," said CII. The industry lobby stated that Cancun represented a turning point in trade negotiations. R.K. Somany, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said, "Unless the developing and least developed countries stand to gain equally from the system, there is no reason for them to agree to further negotiations on any front in WTO." Somany supported the Indian commerce minister on his firm stand of not giving in to the developed countries' pressures at Cancun and commended his resolution to keep away from any negotiations unless the high agricultural subsidies given to farmers by the European Union and the U.S. are phased out. He added that it is unfortunate that the definition of development has come to imply gains for only developed countries and their citizens.
Source: IANS