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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
A delegation of high-level executives from US public pension funds (non-profit and government sectors) is visiting India next week to assess and familiarise themselves with the investment opportunities in the country. These executives belong to various American states and cumulatively represent $1.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM) invested across the US and global markets. The United States (US) mission to India, which includes its embassy and consulates and the Department of Treasury, along with India's Ministry of Finance and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), is hosting the delegation.
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."
'Many countries believe that if they join BRICS, they will be seen as emerging countries and their stature will be enhanced.' 'G-20 still has common action plans while BRICS does not do that much.'
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.
Showing respect to the Indian flag, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday immediately picked up the tricolour placed on stage at a BRICS meeting here to mark the standing place of every leader so as not to step on it.
Bibek Debroy was one of the very few economists not bound by any single area of expertise and was simultaneously curious about economics and politics, myths and maths, chess and chemistry, and what not, remembers Laveesh Bhandari.
Due to the huge pile-up of visa applications, the US consular officers in the neighbouring country are now adjudicating Indian visa applications where interview requirements have been waived.
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.
Success of the Ministerial meeting depends on the WTO members putting together the broad contours of a deal by August.
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.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has said that a final agreement in global trade talks is possible.
