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 country feels that the talks are necessary to revive the global economy.
"... 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 Doha negotiations has been virtually stalled since July 2008.
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.
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 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.
WTO summit will see whether decade-long negotiations would go forward or be brought to an end.
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.
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.
A last-ditch attempt to rescue the Doha round of world trade talks is likely to be made towards the end of July at a Geneva meeting of 30 trade ministers from among the 150-member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
India has rejected the World Trade Organisation's proposal to conclude the negotiations on the Doha Round by June-end.
The G-20 alliance of developing countries led by India and Brazil is likely to come up with "better" proposals at its meeting in Geneva this week as chances of a global trade deal on WTO's Doha Round brighten. Nath said members of the G-20 wanted to recognise some of the sensitivities of developed countries as long as their own concerns of livelihood and food security are taken on board.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday and sought concessions from India to revive the stalled Doha Round of negotiations.
The differences between the rich and developing nations have always been at the core of the World Trade Organisation, set up in 1995 to facilitate greater trade flows across the world, and it came as a major breakthrough when the US and India reached a deal over food security issues in 2014.
"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.
Gloom over ministerial, courtesy US-China spar, conflict between cotton-producing African nations.
Nobody can rightly argue that the WTO or the external world is primarily responsible for the woes of our farmers.
Rapid industrialisation has helped India speed up its economic progress said WTO chief Pascal Lamy.
India has expressed its disappointment over non-reaffirmation to conclude 14-year-old Doha Round pacts
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.
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.
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.
A day after collapse of the G-4 talks, India on Friday said the group's role as a consensus- building mechanism in WTO talks has come to an end and warned the US and EU against trying to divide developing nations.
The US on Monday blamed India and China for creating hurdles in the ongoing WTO talks here and said Doha trade talks have been thrown into the "gravest jeopardy" by these two countries which are not willing to open their markets for more imports.
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 reiterated that members have spent over a decade on the Doha Round and it should not be kept hanging.
US President George W Bush on Monday spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed the status of the civil nuclear deal and the recent nuclear test by North Korea.
WTO chief's two-day visit to India beginning Tuesday will also see him holding discussions with Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, as well as representatives of the industry, sources said. His visit comes days after the WTO mini-ministerial meeting in Geneva collapsed on the issue of safeguard for farmers from the developing countries against import surges.
India has said it is committed to working for a successful conclusion of Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks despite the setbacks witnessed in the recent months.
Trade ministers of key WTO member countries, including India would meet on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting in Paris in the last week of May.
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.
India on Monday emphasised the need for resuming talks on the WTO's stalled Doha Round, stating that the negotiating text for global trade can be the staring point for further talks.
The fresh initiative by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma to meet ambassadors of the key members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, in a bid to revive the deadlocked Doha round of trade negotiations, is well-timed though a positive outcome may be doubtful.
A day after the failure of six-nation WTO talks in Geneva, government said on Tuesday the US is unwilling to reduce domestic subsidies on farm products.
'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.'
