By IANS
New Delhi : The 151 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will meet in Geneva Sep 3 to discuss the drafts on agriculture and industrial tariffs in a bid to revive the Doha talks, a top official of the organisation said Monday.
“The draft papers on agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access) has been largely accepted by all the member countries,” said Harsha Vardhana Singh, deputy director general of the WTO.
“But there are some modalities that needs to be worked out,” he told a seminar – ‘WTO and Doha Negotiations: Closing the Gaps and the Way Forward’ – organised here by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Last month, WTO mediators circulated the draft texts on liberalising trade in agriculture and industrial goods, including the possible ranges of tariff and subsidy cuts, to help member countries reach a consensus in the negotiations.
WTO members were requested to study the draft texts and come back to Geneva in September for a new round of intensive negotiations.
“Now is the time when we are in the last phase of a different kind of brinkmanship,” Singh said.
“We, at WTO, our trying our best to conclude the agreements which are reachable and beneficial,” he said, adding that all comments and feedback received from the countries were taken into account.
On New Delhi’s current position at the negotiating table for multilateral trade talks, Singh said: “India is sitting pretty in the main areas of concern. India is in a very comfortable position.”
He said Indian interlocutors at the talks had been involved closely in ensuring that the views of developing countries were heard and added that India was also a heading some important coalitions at the talks such as the G-20.
“But one has to remember that whatever position the developed or developing countries take in a negotiation, one has to move from that and be happy with what they get.”