India on Tuesday lashed out at the 'increasing protectionist tendencies' in developed countries and demanded a balanced approach in multilateral trade talks to distribute gains on a fairer and equitable basis.
"Unilateral protectionist measures seriously prejudice the effectiveness of trade to distribute gains on a fair and equitable basis," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in his address at the plenary of UNCTAD XI in Brazil.
Asserting the need for a balance between policy space and multilateral commitments, he said global trading systems must incorporate flexibilities to reflect and address basic developmental concerns of the people.
"While asking the countries to assume new obligations and implement existing ones, we should strive for balance between policy space and multilateral commitments," Nath said.
India wants to ensure that multilateral trading system incorporated flexibilities to reflect and address the basic developmental concerns of people, he said on Tuesday.
Highlighting India's concerns over non-tarrif market entry barriers, he said even as tarrifs were being lowered, a plethora of more discriminatory and intractable entry barriers had made market access for developing countries increasingly difficult.
Kamal Nath pointed out that in the case of countries like India, exports ranging from food, textiles and electronic products to services using Mode 4 (supply of service by way of movement of professionals) faced restrictions and dislocations.
Emphasising on mainstreaming of development into international trade, Kamal Nath said a vital aspect for the equity of the multilateral trading system was the way it accommodated the constraints of developing nations.
"In case of agri negotiations, India is ready to engage constructively in proportion to the commitments made by the developed countries. However, a country like India cannot but give priority to fundamental imperatives of food security and livelihood and subsistence of more than 650 million farmers.
"At the same time, it is important that our producers and exporters do not face unfair competition in domestic and foreign markets from subsidies and dumped produce from developed countries," an official release quoted him saying.
Noting the rediscovery of value of South-South cooperation as an essential ingredient of the new trade geography, he said the launch of third round of Global System of Trade Preferences gave concrete expression of India's political commitment to South-South cooperation.
He said UNCTAD was the most visible symbol of international community's assurance to promote equitable social and economic advancement.
The minister also expressed his concerns during the bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Finland, Bangladesh, Brazil, Netherlands, Singapore, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
