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India dismisses US, EU warning of 'isolation' at Doha

India on Tuesday discounted the US and European Union warning of New Delhi's isolation at the forthcoming WTO (World Trade Organisation) ministerial meeting at Doha, asserting it will 'steadfastly' oppose bringing extraneous issues like investment and competition into the WTO work programme.

"We will remain steadfast in opposing the so-called Singapore issues and several developing countries share our perception on them," a senior commerce ministry official said.

Both United States and the European Union claim that India is being increasingly isolated as several developing countries are joining them in convening a new round of negotiations.

India enjoyed the support of several African and Asian countries when it strongly opposed the revised draft ministerial declaration for trying to bring new issues on the negotiating agenda.

Even China and G-77 developing countries have supported India's stand that Singapore issues -- investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation -- should not be brought into the work programme of WTO as they had nothing to do with trade besides being injurious to domestic industry.

Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran has already made it clear that national interest will be the 'touchstone' at the Doha meeting, beginning on November 9 saying, "we do not want India to be a graveyard for domestic industry."

Elaborating why India was opposed to these extraneous issues, the senior commerce ministry official said situation was ripe for developing countries to open up fully on such areas.

Citing trade and investment, Maran said this would mean that developing countries allow free flow of foreign direct investment and 100 per cent foreign equity on all sectors.

In defence, India did not allow beyond 26 per cent foreign equity and all such restrictions would have to go which are detrimental to the developing countries' interests.

Another issue of concern was trade facilitation. While it takes just three hours for cargo to be cleared at Singapore port, it takes several days in Indian ports.

If trade facilitation was brought into the work programme of WTO, then these sorts of delays in clearance at ports could become a matter of dispute at the dispute settlement mechanism of WTO leading to a whole lot of unmanageable legal hurdles for the developing countries.

The commerce ministry official also cited the issue of non-proliferation treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and said on such issues too India stood firm in opposing them as they discriminated the haves from the have-nots.

"We do not want a discriminatory multilateral trading system," he said, adding it was precisely for this reason "we do not support developed countries' viewpoint and several developing countries see merit in our argument."

With India pressing hard for resolution of implementation issues upfront, there was a ray of hope that some of the concerns of the developing countries would be addressed.

The European Union has pointed out that about half of 100 odd concerns expressed by the developing countries would be resolved at Doha. This however may require some changes in national legislations.

Maran too has expressed confidence that the implementation concerns would be addressed at Doha.

It was because of India's determination to oppose the issue of core labour standards at Seattle, the third WTO Ministerial meeting collapsed in 1999.

Revolving round India's viewpoint EU is now agreed that such issues are best dealt with in International Labour Organisation, which was the right forum, and not certainly at WTO.

Maran heads for Doha Wednesday leading a strong Indian contingent including commerce secretary Prabir Sengupta and special secretary Nripendra Misra.

As against conflict and exploitation, the developed countries should be more compassionate to developing countries so that the multilateral trade negotiations worked to the mutual advantage of all.

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