NEW DELHI: India will not succumb to pressure from any country at the coming World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong next month, Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath has assured the Left parties.

At a four-hour meeting on Saturday, Mr. Kamal Nath discussed their concerns about the crucial negotiations. He later told media persons that the Left wanted the Government to press for the re-introduction of Quantitative Restrictions on imports. They demanded that health and education be kept out of talks as they came within the ambit of "public policy."

Mr. Kamal Nath said the Left also cautioned the Government about changing the basic architecture of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as that would dilute the policy space provided in the present agreement.

The meeting on WTO, second within a month, was attended by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai, Communist Party of India's D. Raja, Adviser to CPI(M) on WTO S.P. Shukla and Revolutionary Socialist Party Member Manoj Bhattacharya.

Mr. Kamal Nath said the Government's "broad objectives" at the meet would be to protect the interests of farmers and agriculture, to safeguard the interests of small industry, especially the small and medium-scale enterprises, and to aim for gains in services where India had inherent strengths.

Responding to the Left suggestion that the country's long-term interest would be best served by making common cause only with developing countries and not on issue-based alliances, Mr. Kamal Nath said India was a coordinator of the G-20 group of developing countries as well as founder-member of G-33, a group of 42 developing countries, including India, that were pushing for defensive interests in agriculture.

India was also working closely with the African Group, the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific) countries and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The Minister said he would be participating in the ACP Trade Ministers' Summit in Brussels on November 30.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail