The Hindu : National : WTO chief to visit India for two days

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 04, 2006

National

National

WTO chief to visit India for two days

Special Correspondent

He will hold talks with Centre in a bid to break the Doha impasse

Pascal Lamy

New Delhi: Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Pascal Lamy will visit India for the first time in his capacity as chief of the multilateral trade body for two days from April 5. He is expected to hold talks with the Indian Government in a bid to break the logjam related to the Doha round of trade talks.

During his visit, Mr. Lamy will address a conference organised by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) as well as meet stakeholders under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

According to the ICRIER, the achievement of the Hong Kong ministerial meeting last December was "modest" and failed to attain the potential that a successful conclusion of the Doha agreement is likely to confer. Even subsequent meetings of sub-groups of members in Davos, London and, most recently, in Geneva failed to bring the members any closer to convergence on most of the critical issues. In order to meet the deadlines set by the Hong Kong ministerial, it says a lot of ground has to be covered quickly.

"The conference is therefore aimed at providing a platform to key trade representatives and other stakeholders to informally discuss towards identifying new methods of attaining the elusive convergence," an ICRIER release said. It notes this will be about three weeks ahead of the April 30 deadline by which the modalities negotiations on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) are targeted for finalisation.

Mr. Lamy, who earlier said there was no time to lose, added that in the coming days, WTO members would have to take important decisions, although not the final ones. He is therefore expected to hold talks with the Government here in a bid to reach some form of agreement on the Doha round. India is a key player in the negotiations. The WTO chief has earlier visited India often in his previous capacity as the European Union Trade Commissioner.

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