'Consensus among political parties on WTO issues'

Allaying fears that there was a difference of opinion among the political parties on the World Trade Organisation issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said there was a broad consensus on the areas of concern and all the parties wanted national interests to be safeguarded in the trade negotiations.

"On the areas of concern in the WTO, views of most of the political parties were more or less similar. Successive governments by and large have protected the national economic interests," he said.

Also Read India and the WTO: News and Issues

"We can see some sort of commonality in dealing with the contentious issues particularly agriculture where all parties wanted farmers' interests to be safeguarded...their views are a reflection of the national opinion," Jaitley said at an interactive session of the Forum of Financial Writers in New Delhi.

Jaitley's observations come in the face of his ongoing meetings with political parties and trade unions and trade experts as part of the exercise to formulate India's strategy for the WTO Ministerial in Cancun.

On Trips and public health, Jaitley expressed hope that the Cancun Ministerial in September would see the resolution of the issues.

"We hope Cancun may see resolution of some of the outstanding issue of Trips and public health. A resolution of this would help in creating the right atmosphere particularly for developing countries for any forward movement," he said.