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Advisory committee on WTO favours national consensus

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, June 12

THE country should evolve a national consensus on WTO issues in the run-up to the forthcoming Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled to be held at Doha in Qatar in November, the Union Minister of Commerce and Indust ry, Mr Murasoli Maran, said on Tuesday.

Chairing the first meeting of the reconstituted Advisory Committee on International Trade, Mr Maran said that he would have frequent interactions with the committee comprising academia, experts and senior representatives of chambers of commerce in view o f the Doha conference.

On the possible agenda for the meeting, Mr Maran reiterated that the mandated negotiations on agriculture and services and the various mandated reviews including TRIPS and TRIMs, already under way in the WTO, plus the work programme for effective action on implementation-related issue concerns raised by the developing world constituted a broad agenda for the WTO.

``We have been taking the stand that any new round of negotiations could be discussed only after there is convergence of views in the entire membership of WTO. Such a convergence can arise only if implementation-related concerns of the developing countri es are redressed upfront so as to restore their confidence in the WTO and the non-trade issues are kept off the table,'' Mr Maran said.

Members of the committee felt that there should be a strategic plan for greater cohesion among developing countries on issues likely to come up at Doha and stressed the need for some sort of a global campaign to project India's point of view as part of t he process of a wider debate and opinion-building exercise.

On TRIPs it was suggested that India should seek a substantive review of this linking it with the Convention on Bio-Diversity as well as expansion of the scope of what could be excluded from patentability so that enough flexibility is available to provid e affordable access to drugs and medicines. It was further suggested that international recognition should be sought for the sui generis systems for the protection of traditional knowledge.

Members also highlighted the need to engage negotiators from the developed countries in the form of questions which would reflect the concerns of developing countries arising out of non-fulfillment of the obligations by the developed countries or inequit ies of extant agreements. The fact that the developing countries did not get the anticipated benefits from the Uruguay Round (UR) should be highlighted.

It was also stressed that while highlighting implementation issues, India could consider tabling proactive proposals for stand-alone agreements on items such as `movement of natural persons' and on `software and services.' The need for a wider debate was underlined so as to arrive at a stakeholder-driven position on the various issues that are likely to figure at Doha. A deeper analysis of the outcome of the UR agreements and formulation of future agenda in the light of the past experience was also reco mmended.