Industry sources said the meeting could be preceded by a business-to-business meeting among the industry leaders from these countries.
Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley will lead a high-power delegation to the WTO ministerial beginning at Cancun in Mexico on September 10 in which India and other developing countries are expected to lock horns with the US and EU on several issues.
Divestment Minister Arun Shourie will lead the Indian delegation to the two-day World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial in Montreal beginning on Monday, which would try to narrow down differences on contentious issues.
India will welcome two trade missions in 2015 focused on meeting its infrastructure needs with US technology and services.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday asked the US to restore the Generalised System of Preferences for Indian exports of chemicals and allied products.\n\n\n\n
The WTO's quarterly outlook indicator, comprising seven trade parameters, stood at 96.3, the lowest since March 2010 and down from 98.6 in November. Exports from India would be hit if there is a slowdown in world trade.
The country's current account deficit is likely to hit a three-year high of 1.8 per cent or $43.81 billion in FY22, as against a surplus of 0.9 per cent or $23.91 billion in FY21, a report said on Thursday. According to an assessment by India Ratings, the Current Account Deficit (CAD) has moderated to $17.3 billion or 1.96 per cent of GDP in the fourth quarter of FY22 as against $8.2 billion or 1.03 per cent in the year-ago period, and massively down from $23.02 billion or 2.74 per cent in Q3, which was a 13-quarter high. The improvement in the key numbers are due to the remarkable improvement in merchandise exports in FY22, when it grew 42.4 per cent as against a negative 7.5 per cent in the pandemic-hit FY121.
In a major trade victory for India and several other countries, the World Trade Organisation has held as violation of global trade rules a controversial USlaw allowing American companies to collect more than $470 million
India has rejected the World Trade Organisation's proposal to conclude the negotiations on the Doha Round by June-end.
At the World Bank Banga will be replacing David Malpass, a former Trump treasury official, reports axios.com. Malpass had already announced that he will resign by July, months ahead of his term expired. "Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history," President Biden said in a statement. Banga, 63, currently serves as vice chairman at General Atlantic.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals has submitted a freight subsidy scheme for exporters to the Commerce Ministry so that they could take alternate routes and avoid transit through Europe, which is a shorter route with better connectivity.
National Association of Software and Service Companies said on Thursday that the Indian government should aggressively negotiate on services at the World Trade Organisation.
'We are convinced a section of the bureaucracy believes we should follow the Western model of economic development including the dictates of the WTO,' says RSS Spokesman Ram Madhav.
No one expects the US to sign up on any real deal till the next presidential elections are over.
India and the US will co-chair a 14-member special group on services negotiations, a move aimed at giving a boost to World Trade Organisation talks in services ahead of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December.
India, which is the world's largest user of anti-dumping measures, also tops the list of countries that have taken the maximum number of safeguard actions such as restricting imports of a product to protect the domestic industry.
Alongside the mini-ministerial meeting beginning in Geneva from Monday, the World Trade Organisation is convening on July 24, a 'Singalling Conference' where countries would give indications of the kind of market they are willing to concede in services. It demanded that the conference should be held in serious negotiation mode. The domestic regulations acting as barriers to the supply of services by Indian professionals in the developed markets should be removed, it said.
Being a member of the World Trade Organisation and General Agreement on Trade in Services, India will have to lift restrictions on foreign capital in insurance.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai said the agriculture text proposals on the special safeguard mechanism were not acceptable to India. A country can use the SSM to impose up to 50 per cent additional import duty on farm products which have seen a surge in imports.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will lead the Indian delegation at the World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial meet in the Kenyan capital of Mombasa from March 2-4.
India on Wednesday warned WTO members of backlash in developing countries if economic reforms were perceived to be an imposition from outside.
Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation to the World Trade Organisation mini- ministerial at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Cairo, beginning June 20.\n\n\n\n