US Commerce Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez,who travels to New Delhi, Feb. 13-14 to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, and other senior Indian officials and business leaders, has acknowledged that the top priority on his agenda would be to prevail on India to carry the developing world with it so that the Doha Round can be successfully completed.
Pressed by rediff.com repeatedly at a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center on the eve of his departure, as to what prompted him to visit India at this particular time, Gutierrez said, "This is a critical moment for Doha, a critical moment for these negotiations, and as I mentioned before, India's leadership is required, India's leadership is needed."
"So it works out that the timing is very good and this is a follow up to our President's visit. This comes on the heels of President Bush's successful trip to India," he said. Bush, however, visited India nearly a year ago.
Earlier, Gutierrez had told rediff.com that "clearly, the Doha Round and asking for India's leadership and encouraging India's continued leadership is a very important part of my visit, and I will be discussing that at all meetings."
"The key thing is to recognise that India's leadership is required to be able to get a WTO agreement that will help the whole world and will help India as well. So, yes, I will be talking about that, and I will be talking about that at every single meeting - about Doha and the importance of Doha."
Gutierrez said, "I will be meeting Minister Nath of course, and that will be a very central part of our conversation."
He reiterated that India's role in Doha was imperative because not only was India such a large country, "but it's also important symbolically. India has traditionally played a leadership role among developing nations and I would say that leadership role is growing more and more everyday, every year. And, as other developing countries watch India and they look for cues from India, we'll need to see some movement in agriculture, which of course, we understand is a very important decision for India."
"We also need to see movement in manufacturing and services that are so important for India and India has played a significant role in the progress of services and it is a great example of how services can drive an economy," he said.
In his opening remarks too, he mentioned Doha, saying, "India is a key player in multilateral discussions and multilateral issues, and the one that I'll be focused on, of course, is the Doha Round of negotiations, and we believe that we need India's leadership and India's leadership is required if we are going to break through and get a good agreement, and the kind of agreement that will generate prosperity throughout the world - that will lift literally hundreds of millions of people out of poverty around the world."
Gutierrez denied that the Administration, peeved by India's perceived intransigence at Doha of not carrying the developing world with it was condoning the attempt by some conservative Republican lawmakers to deny India GSP (generalised system of preferences) trade benefits.
Some strongly pro-India lawmakers, particularly those in the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans have told rediff.com that the Administration far from going to bat for India and to protect India from being denied GSP benefits, had been in sync with the contention by some of these conservative Republicans that India's had to be punished for refusing to go along with the US position in Doha and one way of doing it was to deny it GSP benefits.
"GSP is a separate issue, it requires Congressional approval, but the focal point right now is Doha, and I do want to impress upon all of the Indian government officials that without India's leadership we can't do it," Gutierrez said.
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