Jaitley to lead team to Cairo WTO meet

Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation to the World Trade Organisation mini- ministerial at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Cairo, beginning June 20.

India is expected to articulate its concerns particularly "on agriculture, which will be at the centre stage" at the two-day conference to be attended by trade ministers from 32 major players in the WTO, Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The meeting assumes significance at it will provide the opportunity to have a dialogue on contentious issues like Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights and public health and market access in agricultural and non-agricultural products, ahead of the WTO Ministerial at Cancun in Mexico in September.

Services issues under General Agreement on Trade in Services, Special and Differential Treatment, implementation issues, which are of crucial importance to developing countries will figure prominently during the discussions.

This is the third mini-ministerial to be held in the run up to Cancun, the first one was held in Sydney late last year and the second at Tokyo early this year.

The mini-ministerial is crucial as several deadlines in finalising proposals for the initiations have been missed with several countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, taking confrontationist postures on contentious issues.