Stakeholders' consensus to help Doha Round

As Reported By AndhraBusiness.com, Largest Online news network for business news in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

With the pressing demand from member-countries of the World Trade Organisation to conclude the Doha Development talks in 2010, trade bodies have asked the stakeholders of India to contribute their ideas for effective decision-making at the talks.

In an endeavour to create awareness to individuals and industries about the WTO issues, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) organised a seminar on WTO agreements and negotiations aimed at capacity-building of the stakeholders in the process.

"The high level of farm subsidy issues in developed countries, insurance mechanism to reduce tariffs on special products, demand for sectorals and opening up of service industries in other countries are the key issues of our country being represented in the Doha Development Round" said Sishir Priyadarshi, Director, World Trade Organisation, Geneva, at a press conference held here on Wednesday.

While India is fighting for making trade fair in the good segments, Indian market is much more open for services for the member-countries of the WTO, which is hampered by the lack of readiness of developed countries to liberalise the service sectors.

In addition to an increased membership of 153 countries, the Doha Round, in its 9 years of continuous discussions, magnified the proposals and made the member-countries more hesitant in taking decisions. Though it has increased the awareness of challenges and opportunities in the world, the issues are not concluded, making it a delayed round.

"The concerted action and consensus within the nation would be a better option to solve the issue rather than condemning systems of other countries," said M Saikumar, IAS, Zonal Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade.

The anti-dumping issues, TRIPS agreement, non-agricultural market access, including non-tariff barriers, were some of the issues of discussion at the interaction here.
A high-level WTO meeting to wind up the problematic issues of the round is scheduled to be held in March.