India-China to jointly act in Doha round of talks

New Delhi, Apr 17: India and China have jointly urged the developed countries to realise that they bear a special and specific responsibility for the outcome of the Doha round of talks.

Both the countries maintained that the developed countries must show their readiness to implement measures that remove trade distortions and significantly open their markets.

The asian countries feel that their current position do not provide an adequate basis for leading the agriculture negotiations to a successful conclusion. The developed countries must therefore, significantly improve their proposals especially in the two crucial areas of domestic support and agriculture market access as well as be prepared to deliver on the development dimension of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

According to an official communication received here today, these issues came up during the meeting of the Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath with his Chinese counterpart Bo Xllai during the minister's recent visit to Beijing.

The ministers also agreed to remain in close touch and continue the coordination between the two countries for the future WTO negotiations in order to ensure that the development interests of developing countries are secured in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round (DDR).

Later, in a seperate meeting with the Chinese Agriculture Minister, Mr Nath released issues of trade interest to India in the agricultural sector such as export of fruits and vegetables and dairy products.

The Chinese Minister assured to expedite issue of sanitary and phyto-sanitary clearence that was hindering exports of these items to the Chinese market.

In turn China also raised the issue of export duty on iron ore supplied by India.

UNI