As among the fastest growing economies of the world, India, China and Brazil not only have developed a new level of influence at the global level, but are expected to take increased level of responsibilities to smoothen world trade, an official US report has said.

The US Trade Representative in its '2009 Trade Policy Agenda and 2008 Annual Report' has identified India, China and Brazil as the key emerging markets of the world.

"As today's fastest growing economies, China, Brazil and India have enjoyed a new level of influence and will be expected to take on an increased level of responsibility to make the trade liberalising decisions and contributions.

"That would benefit not only their own economic interests, but also promote global economic growth and development to the benefit of all developing countries," USTR said in its report.

The USTR appreciated WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy' decision to convene a G7 leadership meeting at Geneva in July last year to tackle the most difficult issues on agriculture and Non-Agricultural Market Access and including India.

"This was a significant development, effectively providing China, Brazil and India with a seat at this leadership table, in addition to the United States, the European Communities, Japan and Australia," USTR said.

"The inclusion of the three key emerging markets represented an important step forward, moving the overall negotiating dynamic to more closely reflect the dynamic economic reality of today's trading system," said the report.

Five days into the meetings, WTO Director General Lamy put forward to the G7 a package of proposed solutions for approximately 10 of the toughest issues that had divided the membership during the Doha Round of negotiations on agriculture and NAMA.

The solutions were an attempt to capture a balance that shared the pain and gain of the proposed outcomes. Six of the seven members of the leadership group, including the United States, initially indicated that while some of the proposed solutions set out in the Lamy package would be difficult to accept, they could support it as a compromise package.

India, the report said, was initially the only hold-out in accepting the Lamy package, but was subsequently joined by China.

The members' objections focused primarily on two elements of the proposed packages.

One element being their opposition to participating in the negotiation of industrial sectoral initiatives aimed at increasing the ambition of the industrial tariff negotiations through further tariff cuts on certain designated industrial goods such as chemicals, industrial machinery, and electronics.

The other being their insistence on further flexibilities from tariff cuts by lessening disciplines on the so-called Special Safeguard Mechanism, a new measure that would be created under the Doha Round agriculture negotiations, allowing developing countries to raise tariffs beyond their existing allowable WTO limits, it said.