India to be part of informal WTO trade ministers’ meet in Paris

India will participate in an informal meeting of trade ministers from key World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries, including the US, the EU, China, Brazil and Australia, that will try to narrow existing differences over the work programme for the ministerial meeting in Nairobi in December.

The meeting, hosted by Australian trade minister Andrew Robb, is scheduled on Thursday on the sidelines of the OECD meeting in Paris.

“There is a mini-crisis at the WTO at the moment as differences between members over important issues are holding back a consensus on what should be on the agenda for the Nairobi meeting,” a Commerce Ministry official told BusinessLine .

New Delhi is trying to ensure that a permanent solution on treatment of its food procurement subsidies that will preclude the danger of these getting categorised as actionable subsidies is part of the deal in December.

Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also try to bring back the services sector to the centre of the negotiations, the official added. Although the services sector was an important part of the on-going Doha Round of talks launched in 2001, it subsequently got sidelined. A number of members, including the US and the EU, want an ambitious outcome in the area of market access for industrial and agriculture products, while agriculture exporting countries like Australia and New Zealand want commitments on paring of farm subsidies.

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo, who convened a meeting of all WTO members in Geneva on Monday, said he was becoming increasingly concerned that members were not making the progress that is needed in the key areas of agriculture, industrial products and services.

“Agreeing on a work programme was never going to be an easy task. But as of today we are still waiting for the necessary convergence on key issues to deliver the outcome we need by July and to help us build towards a successful ministerial meeting in Nairobi,” he said.

In the previous WTO ministerial meeting in Bali in December 2013, members had agreed to put in a place a trade facilitation agreement to smoothen movement of goods across borders by upgrading infrastructure.

Members had also agreed to sort out problems related to treatment of food procurement subsidies given by developing countries such as India and Indonesia so that these do not get subjected to penalties.

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