The US has expressed concern over India's lack of transparency in its trade policy, as a result of which small and medium-sized enterprises have difficulties in investing and doing business in the country.
A high-level expert group will provide recommendations on boosting global business through trade liberalisation.
Around 75 tariff lines or products from Pakistan would get concessional access to European markets for three years.
India asks for consultations on rise in professional visa fee that hurts IT companies' interests
In 2009, the country stood at the 12th and 22nd position globally in services and goods exports, respectively.
A day ahead of a World Trade Organization informal ministerial meeting at Paris, India said on Wednesday it will not accept attempts by developed countries to shift goal posts of the Doha mandate that calls for an equitable global trade deal.
With the growing voice of developing countries like India, Brazil and China, the big pharmaceutical firms will not be able to get the WTO's Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement changed to their advantage, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said in New Delhi.
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.
'We lost our place in being first in the epidemic, when it hit India so hard, but we were actually the epicentre of the epidemic from essentially April 2020, for almost an entire year. We had such high cases. We were the country that had the most mixed response.'
Sharma met US trade representative Ron Kirk, agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack and deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman and other senior Obama Administration officials.
State newspaper, China Daily, said in a report the US ban violated Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement, that mandates how governments can apply food safety, animal and plant health measures, as well as most-favored-nation treatment and general elimination of quantitative restrictions provided under the WTO framework.
The initiative for the consultations among the select ministers was taken by Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean.
India and Brazil raised a trade dispute against the European Union before the World Trade Organization on Tuesday over seizure of generic drugs by EU member countries on high seas.
Trade talks resumed at the World Trade Organization headquarters at Geneva on Monday, 10 days after 30 ministers broke the impasse on Doha negotiations, aimed at reaching a global pact for opening $32 trillion international commerce.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said India will not "rush to" the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the "regressive" steps taken by the US recently, which include an increase in the visa fee and a special levy on foreign manufacturers.
Developed economies like the US and EU are contemplating certain rules in relation to trade and environment which will have a significant implication for their border trade measures such as carbon taxation system for imports.
This comes in the backdrop of the circulation of new draft negotiating texts last week by the WTO on agriculture, industrial goods and sectorals.
The government said that far from targeting any US entity, the purpose was to ensure fairness, healthy competition, and to exercise the ability of governments to tax businesses having a nexus with the Indian market through digital operations.
Negotiators from the two sides will meet in July either at Brussels or Geneva, additional secretary in the commerce ministry D K Mittal told PTI.
Considering the challenges, he was seen as a lightweight. One year later, his report card shows few breakthrough achievements but hardly any mess-ups.
The US has emphasised on the need for an "ambitious and balanced outcome", even as the World Trade Organization (WTO) is gearing up to circulate another set of texts to push all its 153 members to wrap up the Doha Round of global trade talks by the end of this year.
Officials in the government, however, said India could only lodge a protest and not take legal action against the US.
Dr Siddiqui is currently the vice president, Science and Regulatory Affairs at the Washington, DC-based CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals.
Talks had collapsed in Geneva in July last year after India, among others, opposed agriculture subsidies offered by rich nations to their farmers on the grounds that this distorts trade by making produce of developing countries costly. The negotiators will meet for a week beginning September 14.
The European Union on Thursday raised concern over its trade with India on two areas, differing tax rates in states and entry barriers for processed food items. Both, it said, are major concerns.
The Obama administration has not received any specific assurances from India that it will help carry the developing countries with it to help successfully complete the stalled Doha Development Agenda, but the fact that New Delhi is hosting the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting exudes optimism in this regard, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has acknowledged
The government is planning to approach the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organization against frequent seizure of Indian medicines at various European ports.
The meet will see Goyal batting for structural reforms at the WTO, where India has repeatedly called for reforms, especially in the dispute resolution mechanism that has effectively been held hostage by the US.
'Sullivan and Jaishankar welcomed the cooperation in recent weeks that resulted in deliveries of over USD 500 million in COVID-19 relief supplies from the US federal and state governments, US companies and private citizens across America for the people of India'
However, the Appellate Body declined to make any recommendations to the WTO's dispute settlement body what India should do in the light of its ruling. The government has already removed the additional duty on wines and spirits last year. Similarly, it exempted various products from the extra duty, making the case redundant.
India today asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) chief to explain how he arrived at the figure of $150 billion as "being the Doha Round's contribution to the global stimulus", a demand that was supported by the United States.
The change of mind among Indian experts is based on a recent decision of the UK high court.
Last week, India lodged a complaint against the EU's measures on PET at the WTO, saying Brussels allegedly violated core provisions of the Agreement on anti-dumping as well as subsidies and countervailing measures. Under the WTO's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rules, the EU is required to terminate its measures after five years. But Brussels continued to impose them on the ground that the Indian exports could harm the European producers.
India has expressed its disappointment over non-reaffirmation to conclude 14-year-old Doha Round pacts
Even as India reacted strongly against the proposed changes in the US visa regime, trade experts said the country could do little in multilateral forums like the World Trade Organization to appeal against implementation of such measures.
The G-20 leaders at their last meeting at London had asked Lamy to explore ways to improve the political engagements for resolving differences on the much-delayed Doha Round of negotiations, which were meant to culminate into a multilateral trade liberalising agreement in 2005.
The aim at the meeting, which will see participation from negotiators of 37 countries, is to generate an agreement on clear directions to negotiators to re-energise the multilateral process at the World Trade Organization. The approach followed, so far, in the negotiations has been to get member-countries to agree on modalities for cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods, gradually eliminating export subsidies and reducing agricultural subsidies.
India on Friday stood its ground against attempts to dilute the triggers in the Special Safeguard Mechanism to check unforeseen rise in imports of farm goods
World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy on Thursday faced serious charges of creating darkness at noon in the crucial Doha modalities negotiations when several trade ministers complained about their exclusion from the hard bargains he is conducting among seven members that also include India.
India has opposed a proposal by a group of industrialised countries led by the United States and the European Union at the World Trade Organization on addressing the issue of market access for industrial goods in the Doha trade negotiations.
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