By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday applauded the breakthrough reached at the mini-ministerial meeting here of some 40 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that would lead to resumption of talks to conclude the Doha round of negotiations.
“This will uplift the animal spirit of economic agents all over the world,” an official quoted the prime minister as having told trade ministers who participated at the two-day meet.
“Cooperation in matters of trade in this increasingly interdependent world is inevitable and inescapable,” Manmohan Singh told the delegates during an interaction with them at his residence.
According to the official who was present during the interaction, the prime minister also suggested that if the Doha process was allowed to remain inconclusive, it would only encourage the voices of protectionism.
“This would hurt all economies, especially the most vulnerable, already badly hit by the financial crisis,” the official quoted him as having said.
The prime minister, who proposed the meeting during the G20 Summit in London in April, also urged the delegates to bring to the next round of consultation at Geneva “a spirit of constructive cooperation” if they were to aim for “practical, pragmatic solutions”, the official said.
Manmohan Singh told the ministers that India had an abiding interest in an open, liberal and rule-based global trade regime, and hoped that the success achieved at the Delhi meet would help world leaders in their deliberations at the G-20 summit later this month in Pittsburgh.
Among the key stakeholders who attended the two-day meet here were US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Brazilian Foreign Trade Minister Celso Amorim, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.