Comments
The informal Ministerial meeting of select World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries to be hosted by New Delhi later this month may not turn out to be as eventful as was being hoped for.
Trade Ministers from influential members such as the US, the EU, Japan, Brazil, Canada and South Africa could be giving the event a miss, going by the confirmations received so far.
On the bright side, though, more than 22 invitees have so far confirmed that their representatives would be sent to the meet which include senior officials, permanent representatives to the WTO and in some cases deputy ministers.
“It is a bit disappointing that many Trade Ministers are not finding it convenient to attend the meeting. But we are glad that several important countries are sending their representatives to the meet,” a government official told BusinessLine .
The Commerce and Industry Ministry invited more than 40 countries to participate in an informal meet of Trade Ministers from WTO countries on March 20 to identify ways in which the global trade talks could be re-vitalised.
“The invitees represent the whole world and the agenda of the meeting is how to keep WTO alive and kicking. It is important to have such a discussion as people raised doubts about the relevance of WTO at Buenos Aires,” Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu had told reporters following a stakeholders meeting last month.
US presence
While US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has not confirmed his presence, the country will be represented by Assistant USTR Sharon Bomer Lauritsen. European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, too, seems unlikely to attend as the bloc has named European Commission Director-General Jean-Luc Demarty as head of the delegation.
Trade Ministers and Deputy Ministers who have confirmed their presence include Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maksim Oreshkin, New Zealand’s Associate Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor, Mexican Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade Juan Carlos Baker and Colombian Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade Olga Lucia Lozano.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, too, has confirmed his participation in the informal meet. “We are happy that the WTO DG has confirmed his presence as he could give a focus to the talks and also help re-shape the on-going negotiations at the WTO in Geneva on the basis of the output of the meet,” the official said.
Countries that have confirmed the participation of senior officials or permanent representatives to the WTO include Switzerland, Korea, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, Turkey, Norway, Guatemala, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
Although India sent an invitation to Pakistan for the event, the country has not sent its confirmation yet. This is on expected lines as trade level talks between India and Pakistan came to a stand-still a couple of years ago when diplomatic relations came under strain.
The Commerce Ministry is hopeful that some more confirmations would flow in before the meeting.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.