‘India, China, Brazil will help conclude Doha round’

Asserting that the United States is engaged in trying to pursue an ambitious agreement for the Doha Round, a top White House official has hoped that major trading partners like China, India and Brazil will help successfully conclude the Doha round of trade negotiations.

“We are very much engaged in trying to pursue an ambitious agreement for the Doha Round. We’re engaged bilaterally with major trading partners. We’re engaged in the multilateral process in Geneva. We’re engaged plural laterally with various groupings of countries,” the US Deputy National Security Advisor, Mr Mike Froman, told reporters on Monday.

The United States, he said, believes that it is important that the Doha Round creates meaningful market access if it is going to be successful.

“That’s what we’re focusing on right now and we hope that our major trading partners, including China, India, Brazil, will come to the table with a similar approach and a similar attitude with the objective of creating a strong agreement,” Mr Froman said in response to a question.

The recently concluded Asia-Pacific Cooperation Senior Officials Meeting, he said, discussed the Doha round. Even though, it was not an APEC-specific area of work, it will be very much on the minds of the leaders.

There will be a Trade Ministers’ meeting or Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting at the end of May in Big Sky in Montana, where Doha will also be one of the central issues to be discussed, he said.

COMMENT NOW