The Hindu Business Line : G-4 trade ministers meeting on April 12

New Delhi April 10 Trade Ministers of India, Brazil, the US and the European Commission (EC), banding together under G-4 (the group of four), would hold the first formal meeting here on April 12, after the multilateral trade talks floundered in July 2006.

An official release issued here said that following the collapse of trade talks in July 2006 due to lack of consensus largely on domestic support and market access in agriculture, talks resumed on February 7, 2007, in a sort of bilateral among the four countries in London and Geneva to see whether any convergence could be arrived at. The forthcoming one-day G-4 meeting would review the progress of the Doha Round of trade negotiations.

The meeting of the G-4 would be followed immediately by a meeting of the Ministers of the G-6 comprising the G-4 plus Japan and Australia on the same day.

In both the meetings, Ministers are likely to discuss the areas of emerging convergence among the countries as well as the steps to be taken to contribute in a constructive manner to the multilateral process, so as to enable a successful conclusion of the Round, billed as a development round.

Officials in the Department of Commerce contend that intensive discussions through January to July 2006 had focused mainly on the triangular issues of domestic support, agricultural market access and non-agricultural market access which is broadly described as market access to industrial goods.

They say that the gap remained too wide and the formal meeting of the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) held on July 24, 2006, recommended for suspension of the negotiations across the Round as a whole. Subsequently, a soft resumption of negotiations across the board was agreed on the basis of TNC decision held on November 16, 2006. Full-scale resumption of the negotiations across the board was reported by the Chairman of the TNC in the meeting of the General Council of the WTO on February 7, 2007, they said.

Officials attach importance to the New Delhi meeting, as the trade Ministers would attempt to arrive at some sort of understanding in grappling the nettlesome issue of agriculture that is emerging as the make or break one for all.

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