By Arun Kumar
New York, Sep 28 (IANS) India has expressed the hope that developed countries will show the necessary flexibility to achieve progress in the Doha round of trade negotiations to ensure the primacy of the development dimension.
Noting that the overarching principle of special and differential treatment remains a categorical imperative, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ajai Malhotra, said subsistence farming in developing countries could not be compared with the enormously subsidised farming in developed ones.
“It is unfair to link progress on this issue with NAMA (Non-agricultural market access negotiations),” he said at the 31st Annual Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 here Thursday.
But “it is important for developing countries to maintain flexibilities and preserve policy space particularly in the context of NAMA, in order to avoid the danger of de-industrialisation for some developing countries”.
Referring to recent meetings at the UN General Assembly and other forums on the issue of global warming and climate change, Malhotra hoped developed countries would commit to, and implement, sharper emission reduction targets for the post-2012 period under the Kyoto protocol.
Underlining the need for additional financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity enhancement in developing countries, he said, “Sustainable development must be promoted in a holistic manner through its three pillars of economic development, social development, and environmental protection.”
The Group of 77 has a special role to play in promoting the common interests of developing countries and in fostering South-South cooperation, he said, noting India was already active in sharing its developmental experiences with numerous partner countries. “India intends to further expand and intensify such cooperation with our developing country partners in the years ahead.”
Noting an upward trend in overall resource transfer from developing to developed countries, Malhotra said real and effective technology transfer needs to take place to developing countries, and it is time that the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) regime looks at balancing the rewards to the innovator with the benefit to humankind.
“In this regard, we fully support the newly strengthened Economic and Social Council promoting awareness and giving policy guidelines in the area of development cooperation, and following-up on major UN Summits and Conferences,” he said.