The World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting broke the 'impasse' over resumption of Doha Round of talks, with 35 trade ministers agreeing to take forward negotiations from where they left in Geneva in July last year.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who took the initiative of hosting the informal meeting of important countries and blocs like the US, European Union, Brazil, China and Australia, remained busy today with officials. While it is being seen as a bold step by India to re-energise the Doha talks after they collapsed at Geneva in July 2008, New Delhi is consciously keeping the pitch low so as not to raise expectations from the meeting on Thursday and Friday.
On July 21, trade ministers from nearly 50 countries will converge at Geneva to finalise proposals on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (Nama) which are part of the Doha Round of world trade talks. World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy tells Business Standard why the ministerial is crucial.
In the men's 20km race walk, Vikash Singh finished 28th in a time of 1 hour 21 minute 58 seconds, while Paramjit Singh (1:24:02) and Akashdeep Singh (1:31:12) were 35th and 47th respectively in the event in which 50 athletes competed.
Director General of the World Trade Organisation had stated early this month that the current food crisis can be solved through a successful outcome of the Doha Round of negotiations for a multi-lateral trade deal among 151 countries. Biswajit Dhar, head of the Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, felt that if an agreement is reached it would provide certainty in terms of policy regime for the farmers in developing countries.
Rohan Bopanna lost 3-6, 3-6 to China Peng Sun in the second round of the men's singles competition at the Asian Games.
On his maiden visit to New Delhi to attend the two-day informal ministerial meet on Doha round, Kirk told reporters in a teleconference that he would be back to New Delhi in just over a month for 'continued talks' relative to the Trade Policy Forum.
India's trade envoys to the World Trade Organization are comfortable with the proposed norms on concentration of tariff cuts, but are firm that the sectoral proposals at the Doha Round will have an adverse impact on the country's economy.
For developing countries, the key to both food security and livelihood security is the ability to protect small and marginal farmers from unfair competition and the policy space within which they can develop an agricultural policy centered on small-farmers and the maximisation of employment growth.
Chitravel and Aldrin set new national indoor records in triple and long jump
India's agriculture ministry has identified a list of around 80 special products that should get tariff treatment as part of the World Trade Organisation's current Doha Round negotiations.
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown on Wednesday came down rich countries' subsidy to their agriculture sector.
Reacting to the revised draft modalities put out by the WTO in Geneva on February 8, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said while convergence has been achieved in some areas, brand new text with regard to many unresolved issues has also been brought out.
The issue of Doha round of WTO talks dominated the discussions as Prime Minister Manmahon Singh met his British counterpart Gordon Brown here and agreed on the need for pushing the stalled negotiations. Brown, while favouring cut in farm subsidies in the US and the Europe, voiced optimism that an agreement could be reached in the global trade talks that have got stuck due to stiff opposition by India and some other developing countries on agriculture subsidies.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath left for Geneva on Wednesday to attend a meeting of the G-20 alliance which will make renewed efforts to work out a global trade deal on the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.
Neeraj Chopra will next compete in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest starting on August 19, without participating in any other meet.
Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar romped into the into the second round of the boxing events of the Asian Games.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh believes that most of the major economic indicators are still negative, when one looks at the world economy as a whole.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has arrived in Italy to attend the G-8 summit -- which neither carries high hopes for India, nor for the world.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will meet new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk at Bali in Indonesia on June 6-7, on the sidelines of the meeting of the Cairns Group of farm product-exporting countries. The two countries have serious differences on the level of protection that can be given to farmers as and when the global market for farm products is opened up. India has argued all along that it cannot compromise on food security and livelihood concerns.
Dealing another blow to WTO's Doha Round, crucial talks between four major players at Potsdam in Germany failed today as India refused to yield any ground on giving market for farm products to rich countries.
India has said that developed countries were trying to go back on their commitment on the development content of Doha round of WTO talks and are putting new conditions on developing countries leading to a deadlock.
A top Bush administration official has said that there is "tremendous potential" for the growth of US-India trade and hoped that the two countries would work together for a strong Doha Round Agreement.
The US on Tuesday said India must play a leadership role for achieving a global trade-liberalising agreement among 150 WTO members under the Doha Round of negotiations.
Contending there are 'strategic flaws' in the global trading system, India said on Tuesday these need to be corrected for resumption of the Doha Round of WTO talks which are suspended since July.
The United States on Monday ruled out cutting farm subsidies unilaterally, but said it was open to talks on the subject with a view to restarting the Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation.
In her remarks at the US-China Relations Conference in Washington on Tuesday, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said: "I urge China to pull back from the brink and unambiguously commit to the market access and flexibilities put on the table by the chairs -- just as Indian Prime Minister Singh has indicated his country will".
India is giving priority to boost trade with European Union and foresees no difficulty in signing a free trade and investment agreement with EU, notwithstanding wide differences between the two sides in the WTO over the Doha Round of trade talks. India and EU are negotiating a free trade and investment agreement aimed at phasing out and eliminating import duties on a large number of trade items.
The world's top eight industrial nations on Monday ppeared to have climbed down from a tough position on farm subsidies, reviving hopes of resumption of the collasped WTO talks.
Eight stadiums in Doha will host 64 matches at the World Cup.
The WTO mini-ministerial scheduled to be held later this month to break the impasse on crucial farm and industrial tariff negotiations has been called off.
India is an important partner of the United States and the export of mangoes to the US reflects the 'closeness' and increasing 'interdependency' between the two governments, the White House has said.
India has expressed disappointment over the first draft text for the forthcoming World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong
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