The Confederation of Indian Industry on Wednesday refuted the statement made by an European Union official who claimed that the apex chamber body has agreed to discuss the investment issue within the Doha framework.

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"This is not correct, particularly, since CII had not agreed to sign the joint business charter of the UNICE, which is the employers' organisation of the EU," a CII statement said in New Delhi.

Refuting the statement made by an EU official on the stance relating to the Singapore issue, it said, "CII does not believe that the Singapore issue is a package."

In Singapore, it was only agreed upon to form working groups on four issues, which does not mean that these issues have to be handled together as a single package.

CII has avoided the unbundling of the Singapore issues as the concerned issues, except for investment and competition policy, are not related.

Moreover, CII believes that the situation as of now is not right for multilateral negotiations on any of these issues in the form of framework of rules or otherwise.

CII always maintained that the spirit of Doha mandate has to be honoured with respect to the Singapore issues and all other issues, which clearly states that the multilateral negotiations can be launched only on the basis of "explicit consensus" to be achieved at Cancun.