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India to voice concern against trade discrimination at WTO

India would strongly voice its views against trade discrimination at the upcoming WTO (World Trade Organisation) ministerial meeting in Doha, Planning Commission Member N K Singh said in Beijing on Monday.

"India would certainly not hesitate to put forward its views strongly to make sure that the mistakes of the earlier rounds are not repeated in Doha," Singh said.

Asked whether he sought China's support for India's opposition to a new round of WTO trade talks, Singh said: "this issue was neither raised by them nor us because what will happen in Doha is still somewhat in the realm of lot of hypothetical questions".

"I think the dynamics of the act of negotiating process needs to be carefully watched before any conclusion can be arrived at," he said.

At the same time, Singh noted that India and China being the fastest developing countries could work together at the WTO to voice the concern of the developing countries to ensure a more even treatment to their problems and ensuring the access of goods and services.

"India and China could be important partners in the WTO because both countries share the view that the results of the Uruguay round has not benefited the developing countries adequately and that the built-in asymmetry in gains from the Marakesh round need to be rectified," he said.

As far as issues of implementations are concerned to the developing countries, particularly subsidy, anti-dumping, peak tariff reductions and textiles, India and China can work together, he said.

Also, there is a strong commonality that environmental concerns should not become protectionst devices to block the access of products of developing countries to the market of developed countries, Singh said.

India has said that the draft decision on implementation-related issues and concerns released by the General Council of the WTO on September 26 did not satisfy the aspirations and requirements of the developing countries.

Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran has said that a lot of improvement was needed both in the implementation package and also the draft ministerial declaration to be issued at the WTO ministerial meeting from November nine to 13 in Doha, Qatar.

Singh said he had useful discussions with senior Chinese officials including the executive vice chairman of the state development planning commission and vice minister of the state council office for restructuring economic system, on future bilateral co-operation on several fronts.

During the discussions, both sides agreed that India and China have a lot to learn from each other's experiences on how to adapt from an over-regulated economy with the progressive liberalisation of market forces.

"Both India and China had a common experience in progressive deregulation of state dominant public enterprises and managing the transition," Singh said.

He pointed out that China has succeeded in achieving consistently very high rates of economic growth and attracting large volumes of foreign investment.

"Their success in building up a world class infrastructure as a precondition for attracting foreign investment is a very valuable experience for India to learn," Singh added.

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