New Delhi, Dec 8: India, which has taken the lead in re-energising the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, will ensure that the rights of the developing and poor nations are not compromised, the Rajya Sabha was told Tuesday.
 "There is no question of India, while re-energising the Doha Round, compromising with the rights of the developing and poor nations," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said while responding to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha on 'The present status of the WTO negotiations'. 
 "India has all along maintained that it would re-energise and not reinvent the Doha Round," he maintained. 
 Denying suggestions that India was under pressure from the developed world to alter its stance, particularly in areas like agriculture and market access, Sharma said: "India is only under one pressure and that is the pressure of its interests, its people and its farmers. 
 "The main negotiating issues and the key elements from India's perspective in the Doha Round are to honour the development dimension; protecting the interest of poor farmers and industry and seeking greater market opportunities for its farmers and industry," the minister added. 
 "India has always been a strong protagonist of the multilateral trading system. We have consistently maintained that an early conclusion of the Doha Round is in our best interests," Sharma pointed out. 
 In this context, he noted that the informal ministerial meeting India had hosted in September had "signalled considerable political enthusiasm for an early conclusion of the Doha Round". 
 Sharma also detailed India's three-point stand on the vexed issue of agriculture: A special products lists that the developing countries will self-designate, A special safeguards mechanism to deal with volume surges of agricultural products, and A drastic cut of agricultural subsidies in the developed world that are trade distorting. "There can be no agreement with these subsidies in place," the minister maintained. "We have a firm and categorical position on agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access: How do we safeguard vulnerable industries of the developing world?"
IANS

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
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