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India resents expansion of WTO agenda
New Delhi, June 23: India has strongly opposed expansion of the WTO agenda by including new issues like foreign investment and competition within the ambit of the World Trade Organisation, asking whether the contentious `Singapore issues` would not impinge upon national sovereignty.
New Delhi, June 23: India has strongly opposed expansion of the WTO agenda by including new issues like foreign investment and competition within the ambit of the World Trade Organisation, asking whether the contentious 'Singapore issues' would not impinge upon
national sovereignty.
''India has reservations about entering into negotiations of any kind without a full understanding of the nature and structure of the agreement that would result from such negotiations,'' commerce and industry minister Arun Jaitley said at the mini-ministerial meeting of the WTO at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
India had agreed for a clarification process on the contentious Singapore issues following a decision taken at the Doha ministerial conference. This was subject to the condition that the negotiations on modalities of discussing these issues will proceed after the Cancun meeting that too after an ''explicit consensus''. ''We do not know the scope and definition of investment – whether it is confined to foreign direct investment that contributes to trade or whether it includes portfolio investment and other short-term forms of capital flows,'' Jaitley said.
He said it was also not known whether a multilateral agreement would lead to more investment. He asked what would be the space left for respect of pre-establishment. Likewise, there is no clarity regarding the scope of competition-whether it applies both to international and national cartels.
''We have not even defined the scope of transparency in government procurements and there is no definite view on the threshold levels or on whether it would apply to entities other than federal governments. We are not convinced about the need of multilateralism on these issues,'' Jaitley said. India took the position that a political mandate to take a decision on negotiation of modalities was possible only after a clear understanding of the issues involved in the multilateral framework.
Jaitley said a meaningful package should be pursued on implementation and special and differential treatment issues.
Resolution of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and public health issues should be given priority since it involved an important question of access of medicine to people in the developing countries. Bureau Report
India had agreed for a clarification process on the contentious Singapore issues following a decision taken at the Doha ministerial conference. This was subject to the condition that the negotiations on modalities of discussing these issues will proceed after the Cancun meeting that too after an ''explicit consensus''. ''We do not know the scope and definition of investment – whether it is confined to foreign direct investment that contributes to trade or whether it includes portfolio investment and other short-term forms of capital flows,'' Jaitley said.
He said it was also not known whether a multilateral agreement would lead to more investment. He asked what would be the space left for respect of pre-establishment. Likewise, there is no clarity regarding the scope of competition-whether it applies both to international and national cartels.
''We have not even defined the scope of transparency in government procurements and there is no definite view on the threshold levels or on whether it would apply to entities other than federal governments. We are not convinced about the need of multilateralism on these issues,'' Jaitley said. India took the position that a political mandate to take a decision on negotiation of modalities was possible only after a clear understanding of the issues involved in the multilateral framework.
Jaitley said a meaningful package should be pursued on implementation and special and differential treatment issues.
Resolution of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and public health issues should be given priority since it involved an important question of access of medicine to people in the developing countries. Bureau Report