Climate talks will not derail Doha debate, avers Centre
As global economy recovers, the Union Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma,on Saturday, asserted that he did not expect contentious ‘Climate Change’ talks under the UN framework to delay the conclusion of the ‘Doha Round’ of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.
“The climate change talks should not delay” or hamper the forward movement of the on-going WTO talks, recently ‘re-energised’ by the New Delhi Ministerial level meeting, and India was confident of “successfully concluding” the new trade agreements of the ‘Doha Round’ in 2010, he said.
Soon after the inaugural of CII’s event –– ‘The Partnership Summit-2010’ –– Sharma said after the Delhi WTO Ministerial meeting, “text-based negotiations” were going on and “we hope that this round of trade talks will take us to a successful conclusion.”
As this was a “development round,” developing countries stood to gain more by the new trade pact and correspondingly had much to lose if it was not concluded, he underscored. As per a study, the new trade agreement would help add $500 billion to the world’s GDP, he said at the joint meet with CII President, Venu Srinivasan.
The US still being world’s largest economy was also obliged to ensure the successful completion of the ‘Doha round’, Sharma said. “This is the time to dismantle barriers to trade and not prop up new ones,” he said quoting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Sharma also assured that India would “safeguard” the interests of “our vulnerable industries and subsistence farmers,” while signaling it was ready to move ahead after the Delhi talks broke the procedural impasse.
“We need to arrive at a multilateral trade framework” that is rule-based, fair, equitable and which meets the legitimate aspirations of the developing countries,” he stressed.
DH News Service
