Convergence of perception among countries on Doha talks: Nath

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said there was a growing "convergence of perception" among the South-South countries as countries begin to re-engage in reviving the stalled multilateral trade talks at Geneva next week.

"As the centre of gravity of economic activity shifts", developing countries like India were realising they must guard against non-tariff barriers such as anti-dumping laws, phytosanitary standards and even packaging used by the developed countries to reject export of items and commodities.

The Minister was speaking after releasing the World Trade and Development Report 2007, prepared by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), at a function here last evening.

Citing the instance of US subsidies, Mr Nath said when 40 per cent of the US cotton was subsidy, "how does a farmer from Africa compete with this subsidy, forget about India." Regarding trade distorting subsidies that had skewed global trade, the Minister said distortion in trade prices had crept in because of subsidies. While the European subsidies distorted farm product prices, the American subsidies were not only distorting prices but also looking for access into global markets on the back of these subsidies.

He also expressed dismay over an article in the International Herald Tribune quoting the former US Trade Representative as saying that it was "a myth" that the Doha Round was a developmental round though it was the developed countries which had demanded this round to strengthen global trade.

On the difficulties in defining the nature of the stalled Doha Round, he asked, "does it mean perpetuating the structural flaws in the global trade talks or correcting these flaws?" Without quibbling over the differing perceptions between the developed and developing countries over the nature of the round, Mr Nath said for him it was not an agricultural or a market access round, but a round to correct existing structural flaws.

Tracing the history of the multilateral trade talks, he said the big difference between the Doha Round and the earlier Uruguay Round was that the civil society was now engaged, due to Internet and proliferation of non-government organisations (NGOs).

"The other big difference was that most countries like India were not engaged in the Uruguay Round." In the present round, every country wanted to get involved in framing the rules.

Endorsing the pitch for South-South cooperation among the developing countries, the report is of the view that the current impasse in the Doha Round of multilateral talks, under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), offers the developing countries an opportunity to make the processes of agenda-setting and decision-making "inclusive and democratic".

UNI