Doha talks: US hopeful of Indian help

The Obama administration has not received any specific assurances from India that it will help carry the developing countries with it to help successfully complete the stalled Doha Development Agenda, but the fact that New Delhi is hosting the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting exudes optimism in this regard, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has acknowledged.

In an extensive response to a question by rediff.com as to whether India's Minister for Commerce Anand Sharma with whom he's had several interactions, including a productive meeting in Washington DC recently, had provided him with any assurance that India would be catalytic in advancing the Doha Round, Kirk said, "First you are very correct in that I've had not only a very productive meeting with minister Sharma in Washington, but we also had an extraordinarily good introductions to one another during our time together in Bali and Paris."

In a teleconference with the media on the eve of his departure for New Delhi, Kirk who arrives in New Delhi on Wednesday added, "And, I'll be candid, one of the reasons that we have all agreed to gather in India, was all of our anticipation and excitement as manifest by minister Sharma in India for engaged and productive talks towards a successful conclusion of the Doha Round."

"Now having said that," he noted, "We don't have assurances from anyone," and reiterated, "I have not been given any assurances from Sharma, nor have I sought any."

Kirk, however, drove home the point of Washington's confidence of India's support, saying, "I take him at his word--as I do all of the participants--that all of us are faithfully committed to working as diligently as we can to see if we can put ourselves in a position to allow Doha to come to a successful conclusion."

"I am extraordinarily hopeful that given the change of administration and tone in our country and in India and others that perhaps it is more favourable than not for us to reach our goal."

Kirk said that he couldn't have gotten off to a better start with his Indian counterpart and continued to mention that "we had a wonderful introduction to one another during our time together in Bali and we cemented that good beginning with a very productive meeting both in Washington and in Paris."

"And the reasons that we are meeting in India," he said, was based on a consensus that India "play a more productive role in the Doha talks."

"We worked with minister Sharma to convince our colleagues to gather in Delhi for this important ministerial. So the very fact that we are coming together in Delhi is a manifestation of how well our meetings have gone."

Kirk said the ministerial would be permeated by multi-lateral discussions but acknowledged that some bilateral US-India trade issues would invariably be taken up on the sidelines.

"We are principally going to be focused on our multilateral issues, but you know with the change in administrations--the good relationships between the United States and India--we are very excited about strengthening our US-India Trade Policy Forum."

Kirk recalled that "we had very productive discussions in the first round, relative to our Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations that were held last month in Delhi and at least at this point, it looks as if I will be back in India in just over a month for continued talks relative to our Trade Policy Forum."

Asked if there had been any discussion of his pending trip to India with President Obama with whom he had played golf on Monday, the administration's point man for trade first joked that for the first time he had gotten the better of the president, and then added, "I did make him aware that I was going to be traveling to India as we were moving forward with his and the directive of the other leaders at the recent G-8 summit in Italy to engage in the type of dialogues that would try to allow us to move Doha forward next year."

"Beyond that I don't think it is appropriate to go into details about what we discussed," he said.

Image: US Trade Representative-designee Ron Kirk.

Photograph: Hyungwon Kang/Reuters