The Hindu Business Line : India has big stake in Doha Round: Lamy

Mr Lamy said in agriculture removal of trade distorting subsidies was an important issue for India, while in non-agricultural market access also, New Delhi has strong offensive interests.

BIGGER ROLE FOR INDIA: The World Trade Organisation Director General, Mr Pascal Lamy, with the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, in the Capital on Wednesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , April 5

The visiting Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mr Pascal Lamy, on Wednesday contended that India had a large stake in the ongoing negotiations in Doha Development Round in three key areas such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and services.

During his one-to-one meeting with the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, as well as interaction with the stakeholders held earlier in the day under the umbrella of the Department of Commerce-UNCTAD project, Mr Lamy said India had defensive and offensive interests in the three principal areas of trade negotiations.

His meeting with stakeholders was marred by slogan-shouting by farmers who said that Indian agriculture should not be taken over by multinational companies.

Addressing tariff peaks

Mr Lamy said in agriculture removal of trade distorting subsidies was an important issue for India, while in non-agricultural market access (NAMA) also, New Delhi had strong offensive interests since the negotiations were aimed at addressing the issues of tariff peaks and tariff escalations against products of export interest to developing countries.

At the meeting with stakeholders, Mr Lamy said, "India has a lot to gain. But being a democracy, it won't happen without major constituencies being convinced."

The US has to lower agricultural subsides, while the EU has to increase market access for farm products from developing countries to ensure success of the current round of global trade talks. "The US and EU have peak tariffs which are obstacles to textiles and clothing trade," Mr Lamy said.

He also pointed out that developing countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa must relent on industrial tariffs.

Turning to services, Mr Lamy said, "the EU, Japan and the US have to open their services markets more where countries like India have a comparative advantage. Otherwise, there will be no resolution in the negotiations.'' FICCI meet

During his interaction with business leaders at a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr Lamy said India would have to "bite into some of its applied non-agricultural tariffs" in the course of current NAMA talks at WTO in order to capitalise on its "offensive strategy" of making the developed countries, particularly the US and EU cut down their tariff peaks and tariff escalations. During the first-day of his two-day sojourn, Mr Lamy also called on the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidamabaram, here and is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

In his two-hour interaction with Mr Kamal Nath at Udoyag Bhawan, the Commerce and Industry Minister told the WTO Chief in no unmistakable terms that there would be no compromise on the interests of Indian agriculture or industry in the ongoing negotiations.

He told Mr Lamy, "while timelines or deadlines are important, this cannot be at the cost of development content of the Doha Round which was launched with the aim of reducing global trade imbalances in favour of developing countries.''

The discussions centred around issues pertaining to agriculture and NAMA in the context of the April 30, 2006 deadline mandated in the Doha and Hong Kong Declaration for finalisation of modalities for negotiations in these two important sectors.