Date:28/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/28/stories/2008042853471200.htm

National

India, U.S. to discuss Doha round on May 8

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: Trade Ministers from India and the United States are set to meet next week to brainstorm ways to achieve a breakthrough in the stalled Doha round of talks.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, during his recent visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had said he would meet his U.S. opposite number, Susan Schwab, on May 8. He expressed the hope that this dialogue would help achieve convergence of views on a new global trade regime.

Mr. Nath added that a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) representatives could take place in May in Geneva. The Doha Development Round commenced in November 2001 at Doha, Qatar.

Its objective is to lower trade barriers, permit free trade, taking into account the differences in development levels of the negotiating countries. The talks have been stalled because of differences between the European Union (EU), U.S. and Japan on one side and emerging markets, including India, Brazil, China and South Africa, on the other. The main disagreement has been over the opening up of agricultural and industrial markets in various countries and the issue of cut in farm subsidies in the developed countries.

In an address to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Accra prior to his arrival in the UAE, Mr. Nath emphasised that the Doha Development Agenda should ensure that the issue of development is positioned firmly at the core of the multilateral trading system.

“Since development issues lie at the heart of the current round of negotiations, the key to the negotiations, therefore, should be, first, to ensure that this round delivers for development and second, help developing countries to integrate into the world trading system,” he observed.