The Hindu Business Line : ‘New formula good basis for restarting Doha talks’

On SEZ, the Minister said that the new rehabilitation policy would not take away the right of the States to acquire land for industrial and development projects.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, July 20 India has said that the new formula for reaching an agreement on agriculture and industrial tariffs at the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a good basis for resuming negotiations .

“The new text on Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) and agriculture is a good basis for starting intensive negotiations to resume the stalled Doha round of talks for conclusion” the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said on the sidelines of a function here on Friday.

Mr Nath said he told the WTO Director General, Mr Pascal Lamy, this was not a text of convergence but a text that will lead to further negotiations. “When negotiations start in September, India hopes that the mandate of the Doha Round to speed up development of poorer countries is addressed.”

The text on agriculture lays out the levels to which the US and the European Union should cap its trade-distorting subsidies. The text on industrial tariff also spells out the level of import duty cuts for developing countries.

The Doha round of talks, which was revived in February after a six-month break, suffered a jolt last month when the key negotiators - the US, the EU, India and Brazil - failed to arrive at an agreement on agriculture and industrial tariffs.

On Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the Minister said that the new rehabilitation policy would not take away the right of the States to acquire land for industrial and development projects.

“The Group of Ministers (GoM) working on the policy would ensure that the entire process is transparent and equitable. The discussions in the GoM would continue and we need to see that the land acquisition policy of the Government is equitable and transparent and that is what the GoM is working on,” Mr Nath said.

The GoM on rehabilitation policy, which met on Thursday, discussed whether the Government should be allowed to acquire land on behalf of the private developers.

The Minister added that the rehabilitation policy being worked out is not just for SEZs but for all industrial and development projects which would involve farm land acquisition.