Assocham industry welcomes new deadline by G-6

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Apr 13: Industry chamber Assocham today welcomed setting of a new deadline of December 2007 for completion of Doha round of trade talks by the trade ministers of six key WTO members.

The industry body has said setting a goal post by the key players is a positive development. From a situation of a total deadlock, negotiations have resumed and reached a position where members have started making conditional offers.

''This meeting is a reflection to the renewed sense of urgency among the WTO Members to revive the Doha Talks,'' Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said.

As US Trade Minister Susan Schwab called for a leadership position to be taken up by the developing countries like India and Brazil, the industry has expressed its willingness to extend its full support to Indian Government in the leadership role.

The chamber said basic approach of India in Doha talks should remain towards elimination of farm subsidies given by the developed countries. India should address the livelihood concern of its subsistence farmers.

The Trade Ministers and Representatives of Brazil, Japan, European Union, United States, Australia and the hosts came out with a communique stating that yesterday's meeting had given a new beginning to the discussions.

''We believe that by intensifying our work, we can reach convergence and thus contribute to concluding the Round by the end of 2007,'' the communique noted.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath underlined the importance of agriculture and said India will not compromise the interests of its millions of farming commmunity whose livelihood was at stake.

The understanding will have to be development centric to remove imbalance that had crept in Uruguay Round, he said.

The communique acknowledged that the Trade Ministers were conscious of the responsibility to facilitate consensus among the wider WTO membership and would contribute to the decision making process of the negotiating groups in Geneva in a timely manner.

They also pledged to work with the Director General, the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups, the Chair of the General Council and the entire WTO membership in the best interests of completing the Doha Round in time.

Meanwhile, Assocham believes that timely conclusion of the Doha Development Round is essential to reduce poverty in the poor and developing nations as also revealed by a World Bank's research study on the subject.

Mr Dhoot said the industries in the developing countries should be given adequate flexibility to reduce the imbalances between the developed and developing countries.

The principal of 'Less than reciprocity' principle should be maintained and sustained in the talks.

UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X