Doha declaration positive for India

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 16. The Commerce Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, today said the Doha Declaration of the World Trade Organisation's fourth Ministerial conference would not cause the country any harm. ``Perhaps for the first time, we have something positive to show,'' he said.

Addressing a press conference here on his return from Doha, Mr. Maran said the prediction that India would be isolated at the conference had been proved wrong as it had found support among many developing countries.

A significant step had been taken by ensuring that the four contentious ``Singapore'' issues would be taken up for discussion at the next ministerial conference after two years. The decision to hold negotiations on these issues could, however, only be taken up only after an ``explicit consensus'' among the WTO members. This meant members opposing the issues could veto the negotiations. In an attempt to describe the concept, he said amid laughter ``it is like a nuclear weapon.'' In the meantime, study groups would submit reports on the four issues of investment, competition, Government procurement and trade facilitation.

In this context, he stressed the need to deepen economic reforms so that the domestic sector could gear up in the next two years to face the challenges. ``If there is one lesson from Doha, it is (that) we should reform fast.''

Mr. Maran described China's accession and India's stubborn stance at the Doha conference as the ``two superstars'' but declined to comment on foreign media reports about the U.S. Trade Representative's frustration and anger over his adamant posture.

Asked whether the new WTO work programme was a new trade round, he said ``this is only a terminology.'' The declaration did not mention a ``new trade round'' but it could also be described thus.

At the same time, agriculture and services were already mandated negotiations but their scope had been enlarged to include the decision to phase out export subsidies on agriculture, though no time-frame had been agreed to, and the move to hold negotiations on movement of natural persons - an area of Indian interest.

On environment, ``some damage'' had been caused but it was limited and was the price paid for the gains in agriculture. ``It is a trade-off,'' Mr. Maran said. Explaining the European position, he said Europe had always sought negotiations on environment and opposed the use of genetically-modified seeds to protect small and marginal farmers' interests.

The negotiations on environment would be limited to the applicability of the existing WTO rules and the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services.

The most important ``trophy of victory'' at Doha was the declaration on TRIPS and public health, which had put public health before patents.

``We succeeded in securing a firm commitment that the TRIPS agreement does not and should not prevent national governments from taking measures to protect public health,'' the Minister said.

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