The Hindu Business Line : Luxembourg sees key role for India in WTO talks

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Chennai Feb. 24 Luxembourg would like to see substantial progress being made to the Doha round of the multi-lateral World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks this year and it believes that India as a member of the G-20 nations has a substantial role to play in taking forward the stalled negotiations.

In an interaction with Business Line on Thursday in Chennai, at the end of his four-day visit to India, Mr Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said if not much progress was made in 2007, it would be even more difficult in 2008. His reasoning was that the US would have presidential elections next year and the EU too, would be busy with a review of its budget. "The EU and the G-20 have a crucial role to play," he said.

Mr Asselborn, who held official discussions in Delhi, said India was an important player in Asia and the EU considered the country to be a "stability factor" in a region where there were many conflicts.

Free trade pact

The EU, he said, was also keen to take forward the idea of a free trade agreement with India. It believed that such an agreement would be beneficial to both the EU and India.

As far as India was concerned, the Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister said it had huge challenges in tackling poverty and in improving its agriculture sector. Two problem areas were infrastructure and devising an adequate social security net.

Mr Asselborn believed that the EU could help India in improving its infrastructure through public-private partnerships. On social security, he said the revolution in Europe 150 years ago was about social security. India needed to improve the whole system of care and pensions, he said.

During his visit to Chennai, Mr Asselborn visited the Nokia plant at Sriperumbudur, about 50 km west of Chennai, and also saw the tsunami affected areas.