SINGAPORE: Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is of the view that a "road map" for the resumption of the global trade talks under the Doha Round "is there" as a result of the "unified position" that the bloc of developing countries has adopted after the recent setback that the process suffered.

Answering questions, on the sidelines of a series of seminars that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is organising here as part of its annual meetings, Mr. Kamal Nath said on Saturday that "we have agreed that technical discussions should continue and we [developing countries] will be doing it."

But, he asserted, "the [Doha] talks can only be resumed once we find that those [developed] countries, on which the onus lies, move forward."

Describing the present impasse in the Doha Round as "a time-out," he said "it is a time for reflection for the developed countries to exercise their leadership in this development round." He maintained that the Doha Round was neither abandoned nor even suspended.

Speculation scotched

The Commerce Minister, who participated in a seminar on the theme of promises and pitfalls of free trade agreements, scotched speculation that India was veering towards the idea of entering into bilateral economic pacts with other countries in view of the stalemate on the Doha front.

No either-or choice

Maintaining that multilateralism on trade matters and bilateral economic pacts were not contradictory, he said countries such as India did not face "an either-or" choice even as "the global economic architecture is undergoing a change."

On the IMF's criticism of India's policy of developing special economic zones (SEZs), Mr. Kamal Nath said: "I think, the IMF has got its facts wrong. The IMF should be sitting more in the fields rather than sitting in Washington."

SEZs

While the SEZs were, for India, "an important engine of growth," these should not be compared and contrasted with the "very large" facilities of this kind in China, he said. The relative importance of India and China is a major theme of the IMF-organised seminars and a key issue in the discussions among the members of the Fund and the World Bank.

On the current turbulence in India's negotiations for an economic pact with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), he said: "There are sensitivities [which] need to be addressed." He was still "quite hopeful" of reaching a trade-in-goods accord with the ASEAN by January 1, 2007.

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