Resumption of Doha talks at forefront of CII summit

Bangalore, Jan 17 (UNI) India and Britain today pitched for early resumption of Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations and arrival at an early agreement.

Day one of the 13th edition of the CII Partnership Summit here saw the key speakers, Union Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath and British Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown, seeking revival of talks, with Mr Kamal Nath stating that any delay would be against the interests of developing nations and Mr Brown holding that the failure would lead to distortions in world trade.

Mr Kamal Nath, chairing the summit for the third successive year, used every available opportunity to plead the case of the developing countries, while asserting that India was committed to play its rightful role in ensuring a rule-based multilateral trading system.

''We can negotiate commerce, but not the livelihood security of people'' he added.

Later, Mr Brown made a strong plea to the United States and European countries to substantially cut agricultural subsidies, amounting to 300 billion Dollars, to move ahead with the Doha talks and said India and the developing countries must also have flexibilites to ensure that an agreement was concluded early.

He said ''resumption of the negotiations to secure a fair deal on free trade is both necessary and urgent. It will require bold steps to break down the barriers and force the pace of change.'' ''We must all move forward and we must do this together,'' he said, adding that each country must play its part and show real flexibility.

World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy said the Geneva Ministerial meeting to be held next week would decide the timeframe for resumption of talks. Talks have resumed at the technical level and would soon resume at the political level, he hoped.

Even as the world leaders were discussing the issue in a five star hotel, activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a protest against WTO.

The three-day summit, attened by over 2,000 delegates including 750 international participants, was earlier inaugurated by Portugal President Anibal Antonio Cavoco Silva.

UNI