India will soon send a team to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to push negotiations in the areas of food security and trade facilitation in services so that movement in both areas takes place before the Ministerial Meeting in Buenos Aires in December.
“We will submit our formal proposal on trade facilitation in services in a few days. Following this we will send a team to Geneva to work with our Ambassador’s (to the WTO) office to ensure that discussions are taken up at various stages on the matter. I have told the WTO DG that whatever stage the talks on services are in, it should move towards being a part of the agenda in Buenos Aires,” Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press conference following her talks with WTO DG Roberto Azevedo on Thursday.
The Minister also told the DG that India cannot support negotiations in investments as well as e-commerce. India floated a concept note on trade facilitation in services in November proposing measures such as clarity in work permits and visas, simplification in rules of temporary stay, rationalisation of taxes, fees and charges and sorting out social security contribution issues for short-term workers, among others.
Azevedo, in an interaction with the Indian industry, policy makers and the media, pointed out that for negotiations on trade facilitation in services pact to gain traction, India had to get other members interested in it.
“Whenever a new proposal is introduced there is suspicion in the mind of members. India has to give the necessary clarifications and gain support,” he said at the seminar organised by CII.
Sitharaman said her team of officials will go to Geneva next month and will also speak to various groups reaffirming India’s need for a permanent solution to the issue of food procurement subsidies at Buenos Aires.
“We are required by our Constitution and Parliamentary Act for supporting our farmers in years of drought and feeding our people. Our mechanism for procurement is public and open. We cannot be asked by the WTO to stop our programme because we may have breached some limit,” she said.
Speaking to industry representatives, Azevedo said at the WTO, issues such as investments and e-commerce would be discussed among amongst a small group or entire membership depending on the interest the discussions generated.