"We are very much engaged in trying to pursue a ambitious agreement for the Doha Round. We're engaged bilaterally with major trading partners. We're engaged in the multilateral process in Geneva. We're engaged plural laterally with various groupings of countries," US Deputy National Security Advisor Mike Froman
'I certainly hope the two can avoid a trade war and believe they will.' 'I expect some in India will push for retaliatory tariffs if the Trump administration applies significant reciprocal tariffs.'
The Doha negotiations has been virtually stalled since July 2008.
It is only through a trade-opening global pact that issues like distorting subsidies or generating market access can be addressed, the WTO chief emphasised.
India and the US on Wednesday expressed the hope for an early resumption of the Doha round of negotiations and agreed to make all efforts to achieve an ambitious, balanced, and pro-development outcome.
"... An early conclusion of Doha Round is important; India is willing to take part in negotiations at the WTO provided the core concerns of the Round, namely development concerns of developing nations are addressed," commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma told Rajya Sabha.
The country feels that the talks are necessary to revive the global economy.
India, Brazil and other developing countries have been asking rich nations like the US and European Union to cut farm subsidies, while resisting the pressure mounted the developed nations for reducing industrial tariffs. The Doha Round is running way behind schedule as the rich and poor nations have failed to reach a consensus on the controversial issues.
The Doha round of global trade talks is facing a slow death and if trade negotiators from all the 153 member countries fail to reach a deal by the end of this year, the consequences can be disastrous for the multilateral trading system, says Jean-Pierre Lehmann, professor of International Political Economy.
The need of the hour is a rule-based multilateral trading regime, which takes on board developmental aspirations of the poor countries and at the same time ensures better access for all. "That is what we shall be striving for," said Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma. He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made commitments that the Doha trade talks, the latest round of which was stalled in July 2008, be concluded successfully.
The country could be a major beneficiary from greater market access in services unlike other developing nations, said the working paper authored by H A C Prasad, senior economic advisor in the ministry. India is Asia's third largest economy with a size of nearly $1 trillion. Services contribute about 61 per cent of GDP and the sector is growing at double-digit rates.
The Director General of World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, today urged to speed up the negotiations on the Doha Round as the Trade Promotion Authority in United States is expiring in June.
Although Indian team is in full strength at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, officials back home are apprehensive of any concrete developments in absence of 'right signals' from Washington.
India said on Wednesday developed countries were still not willing to fulfil their commitments under the World Trade Organization agreements and warned this could put the entire global trade at risk.
WTO summit will see whether decade-long negotiations would go forward or be brought to an end.
India is most open to dialogue on the Doha round and trade negotiations among all major emerging markets, a top Obama Administration official has told the US lawmakers.
Trade ministers of the Group of Six (G-6) countries resolved on Thursday to conclude the six-year-old Doha Round of trade talks by the end of the year.
Though it was not formally declared at the Doha trade negotiations committee meeting today, it is privately admitted that the 2010 deadline will not be achieved, several trade envoys and senior officials told Business Standard.
India's chief trade negotiator Rahul Khullar yesterday warned that the much-planned ministerial meeting, which the World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy wants to convene soon, can succeed only if there was a revised Doha Rules text reflecting the concerns of all the members and an immediate resolution of TRIPS-CBD issue.
India has expressed its disappointment over non-reaffirmation to conclude 14-year-old Doha Round pacts
India has reiterated that members have spent over a decade on the Doha Round and it should not be kept hanging.
India had proposed amending the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap of 10 per cent.
US continues to lead efforts to shake loose the economic promise of an agreement with real market access for all involved.
"The keenness of the commerce minister to kick-start Doha Round negotiations are not in India's interest and we have much more to lose than gain in these negotiations," Indian Peoples Campaign Against WTO, joined by Communist Party of India Marxist and Communist Party of India, charged during an agitation in New Delhi.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday warned that it would launch a an agitation if the government changed India's stand at the Doha Round of WTO negotiations for free trade.
Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma warned against protectionist measures resorted to by developed countries saying those measures would further deepen recession and delay a recovery in the world economy.
With global trade expected to shrink drastically in 2009, the issue of increasing protectionism is expected to come up for an intense discussion at the summit in London among the leaders of the advanced and developing economies which account for over 80 per cent of the multilateral trade.
Although countries like India and Brazil were not part of the just concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, there is a commitment from leaders of the two nations to see the Doha Round modalities done by the end of this year, Dan Price, assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, said in a briefing en route to Andrews Air Force Base at the conclusion of the APEC meeting in Peru.
Rapid industrialisation has helped India speed up its economic progress said WTO chief Pascal Lamy.
Even as World Trade Organization director general Pascal Lamy has claimed that a successful Doha Round will lead to rich nations undertaking steeper tariff cuts than developing and poor nations, an analysis of the proposals shows the opposite may be true.
Chance of an accord in global trade talks suffered another setback following India's Union minister Kamal Nath terated that the country will not compromise on its stand on agriculture market access in the WTO's Doha round of talks.
"If the Doha Round does not materialise that would not be on account of the US agricultural subsidies ... major emerging economies (India and Brazil) are not coming up with enough market access, especially in non-agricultural areas such as services including financial services," US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who will be visiting India shortly said.
India on Friday rejected the US charge that it is blocking the Doha Round of trade talks but said the officials of the two countries will intensify their engagement in Geneva to streamline the differences on cut in duties on industrial and farm goods.
Nobody can rightly argue that the WTO or the external world is primarily responsible for the woes of our farmers.
Noting that he was in India in January, Bhagwati said there is no way anybody in India could be prevailed upon to make the kinds of concessions that are required by the US farm lobby, against a cut of only $3 billion.
Rich countries should bring down tariffs on goods that developing countries want to export to them for achieving objectives of the Doha Round of trade talks at WTO, President A P J Abdul Kalam said on Friday.
Greater involvement by world political leaders is expected to deliver a breakthrough in the Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization by June, the chief of the multilateral trade body Pascal Lamy said.
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