The Hindu Business Line : EU for time-bound, `balanced' outcome of WTO talks

The Director-General Trade, European Commission, Mr David O'Sullivan (left), with the Secretary General of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Amit Mitra (centre), and the Additional Secretary, Department of Indian Commerce, Mr Gopal K. Pillai, at the India-European Union partnership on WTO issues meeting in the Capital on Tuesday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Feb. 14

THE European Union (EU) is committed to a time-bound and "balanced" outcome of the multilateral trade negotiations but negotiations on agriculture and non-agriculture market access (NAMA) issues would be accorded as much significance as those on services and rules, the Director-General Trade, European Commission, Mr David O'Sullivan, said here on Tuesday.

Addressing a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr O'Sullivan said, "We must ensure a single undertaking in the Doha Round," adding that "agriculture liberalisation is important, and as India knows, too much market access too quickly can be damaging to India's economy."

He said that the EU has put on the table a significant offer on agriculture, shifted 90 per cent of trade-distorting subsidies from the `amber box' to the non-trade distorting subsidies' `green box' at a great cost to its domestic constituency and it is committed to eliminating all export subsidies. Therefore, it is essential that this is accompanied by new commercial opportunities in the services sector, he pointed out.

The Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr G. K. Pillai, said, "We need to take on board many countries as a number of them are yet to understand the potential benefits arising out of the negotiations." In India "we need to undertake a lot of domestic reforms to provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry."