India negotiated hard for developing nations at WTO meet: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: India negotiated "hard" at the recently concluded WTO's Nairobi meeting to ensure that the interest of developing countries remains at the centre of the agenda, government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

"India negotiated hard to ensure that the WTO continues to place the interest of developing countries and LDCs at the centre of its agenda," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha.

A few developed countries including the US, however, are opposed to the continuation of the Doha Round, she said.

The Nairobi Ministerial Declaration acknowledged that members have different views on how to address the future of the Doha Round negotiations but noted strong commitment of all members to advance negotiations on the remaining Doha issues, she said.

"India not only made a statement to this effect at the closing ceremony on December 19 but also made a written submission to the Director General, WTO and the Chair of the

Tenth Ministerial Conference," the minister said. As part of the Doha Round, developing countries want the developed nations to substantially reduce their farm subsidies.

Sitharaman said the declaration records that WTO work would keep development at its centre.

She also said that on demand from a large number of developing countries for a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for agricultural products, India negotiated a Ministerial Declaration which recognises that developing countries will have the right to have recourse to an SSM. SSM would help the countries to raise tariffs in case of sudden surge in imports or dip in global commodity prices.

"Members will continue to negotiate the mechanism in dedicated sessions of the Committee on Agriculture in special session. The WTO General Council has been mandated to regularly review progress of these negotiations," she said.

She said that as the future of the Doha Round appeared in doubt, India sought and succeeded in obtaining a re-affirmative ministerial decision on public stock holding for food security purposes.

"The decision commits members to engage constructively in finding a permanent solution to this issue," she said. On the introduction of new issues like investment and e-commerce being pushed by the developed countries, she said the Declaration acknowledges the differences in views and states that any decision to launch negotiations multilaterally on such issues would need to be agreed by all members.

Meanwhile, some sections of Civil society groups and trade experts have criticised the government on the outcome of the World Trade Organization meeting. They have said that India has gained nothing from this meet.