Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has told his negotiating team for WTO talks that "the bottomline for India in the WTO negotiations should be what do we gain from it in sectors of concern to us". WTO talks will resume in Geneva this month.
Nath on Monday chaired a brainstorming session on issues in the ongoing Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organisation. He stressed the need to focus on what would be the gains for the country and how to strategise for them, a release said.
"It is vital to be clear about what we want -- what would be in our best interests -- and how we go about it," the minister said, as preparations get under way with three months to go for the next ministerial meet in Hong Kong.
The meeting was attended by Commerce Secretary S N Menon, Secretary (Industrial Policy and Promotion - IPP) Ajay Dua, additional secretary GK Pillai, India's Ambassador to the WTO in the Permanent Mission of India/Geneva U S Bhatia, joint secretary R Gopalan and joint secretary Anthony De Sa, the release added.
There were discussions on agriculture, non-agricultural market access (Nama) and services. They also focussed on development in all areas as embodied in the special and differential treatment provisions.
In Nama, the issues relevant for India relate to problems of tariff peaks and tariff hikes in developed countries and ensuring market access for developing countries.
In services, the discussions focused on India's offensive interests in Mode 4 (movement of natural persons) and Mode 1 (cross-border supplies including BPO and offshoring) and the progress of the request-offer process covering the two modes and Modes 2 and 3, it added.
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