In a bid to expedite the much delayed multilateral trade opening agreement, World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy is arriving here on Friday to hold consultations with the Centre and industry to remove irritants.
Differences between rich and developing nations have been a stumbling block in this regard and efforts are on to reach an agreement under the Doha Round of WTO by 2011.
Push to Doha Talks
Mr. Lamy, who will spend three days in India, will hold bilateral meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.
“The two leaders are likely to discuss the progress of the Doha Round of Talks,” a senior Commerce Ministry official said.
Besides, the WTO Director General will hold a meeting with members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and academicians to ascertain views of Indian industry and the civil society on certain vexed issues that are holding breakthrough in the global trade talks that were launched in 2001.
India and other developing nations have been defending their agricultural market to protect millions of subsistence farmers from easy imports that may result from the multilateral agreement.
India along with Brazil, China and South Africa is espousing the cause of developing countries in the WTO negotiations.
Early this week, Mr. Lamy said in Geneva that top global leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President Barack Obama, had provided during the recent G-20 meeting in Seoul, “a clear signal that they expect the Doha Development Round to be a deliverable next year.”
The WTO Secretariat on its own is likely to convene a meeting of top negotiators in Geneva in December for further talks and assess the progress on various aspects of the multilateral negotiations.
According to WTO estimate, successful conclusion of Doha talks could boost global trade by up to $200 billion in a year.
