India will be represented by Union Divestment Minister Arun Shourie in the informal World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting convened by US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick
In a significant development, Asian economic giants India and China have decided to coordinate positions on contentious trade and investment issues like agriculture, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights and public health and investment.
India has made it clear that it will not relinquish the leverage on agriculture and NAMA until a services deal is finalised by the WTO.
While the Trump administration wants India to lower the trade barriers and embrace "fair and reciprocal" trade, India has raised tariffs on 28 items exported from the US in retaliation to America's withdrawal of preferential access for Indian products.
The prime minister said that developing countries should get a fair deal at the tough WTO negotiations at Geneva
India has jumped five places to become the world's 11th biggest exporter of commercial services in 2005, and inched one step ahead to the 29th rank among the largest merchandise exporters, according to the latest statistics by WTO.
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.
There is a need to have a balance in these negotiations so that environment friendly products from developing countries also get improved market access
The World Trade Organisation agreed on Monday to an Indian demand for a probe into special trade deals granted by the European Union to countries fighting drug trafficking.
George Perkovich, vice president, studies, and director, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that with the United States-India nuclear deal in limbo, the lack of convergence between Washington and New Delhi on Iran, climate change, the World Trade Organisation, and stagnation of defence cooperation, the US-India relationship has indeed been oversold.
Joseph Stiglitz accuses the US of negotiating over issues already settled at the World Trade Organization.
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.
From the seas to the stars, this partnership will now be deepened by the defining role of technology, the statement said.
India will press for greater market access for developing countries in the services sector besides highlighting concerns in agriculture and industrial goods negotiations at the World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial on Saturday at Davos.
US President Barack Obama said, "You know, I think that if you look at history one of the most important things during a worldwide recession of the sort that we're seeing now is that each country does not resort to 'beggar thy neighbour' policies, protectionist policies, they can end up further contracting world trade."
Rich countries will use the Doha Round to shift the pain of the financial meltdown to developing countries.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's Professional Education-I, Professional Education-II and Final examination will be held from November 1.
The contentious issue of market access, in World Trade Organisation negotiations, will figure prominently in the discussions between Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley and visiting European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
India's trade envoy, Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia, issued a strong notice that if there is no third revised text which fully addresses the grave lacunae as well as developmental deficiencies in the latest draft, it would be difficult for members to enter into horizontal meetings that WTO chief Pascal Lamy wants to convene next month.
Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath met US trade representative Susan Schwab in New York on Thursday evening. He said the meeting led to 'much more convergence' between the two countries than last year on the feisty issues relating to the WTO negotiations. The minister arrived in New York to release his book 'India's Century' and to meet Schwab in yet another bid to achieve a breakthrough on the issue of agriculture subsidies that are at the core of WTO negotiations.
Success of the Ministerial meeting depends on the WTO members putting together the broad contours of a deal by August.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has said that a final agreement in global trade talks is possible.
