press trust of india
Buenos Aires, Dec 12: India toughened its stand on the need for a permanent solution to the public stockholding of food, saying that failing to achieve it at the WTO’s ongoing 11th ministerial meeting here would impact the credibility of the multilateral trading institution. The Indian team led by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is slated to meet trade ministers of the member countries and director general of WTO to re-emphasis that the permanent solution to food stockpile issue was a “must have” at the ministerial.
The four-day ministerial conference which began Sunday ends Wednesday leaving ministers little time to thrash out the contentious issues.
“India has emphasised that permanent solution was a must
have and should be an improvement over the Peace Clause (agreed at Bali)… If not delivered, it would affect the credibility of the WTO,” said J S Deepak, India’s Ambassador to WTO.
When asked if there was opposition to permanent solution from some quarters, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that there was no concerted opposition, but issues regarding transparency and safeguards were being worked out.
“We are working our way to an acceptable ministerial outcome . . . The minister had said that we don’t envisage an outcome without the permanent solution,” she said, adding that “deeper engagements on specifics” are expected today and tomorrow.
In his plenary address Prabhu had emphasised that WTO members must find a permanent solution to the public food stockpile issue as it was linked to the survival of 800 million hungry people across the globe. Besides the public stockholding issue, India is also engaging in several other areas like services, fisheries and e-commerce to ensure that outcomes are in tandem with India’s stated position.
On whether Prabhu would be meeting US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Teaotia said time of the meeting has not yet been fixed. Lighthizer’s remarks questioning special and differential treatment to countries with high GDP Monday evoked sharp reaction from India which emphasised that it was entitled to benefits under the rules which were integral part of the WTO.
Jack Ma for easier e-commerce rules
Buenos Aires: Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, Tuesday urged WTO members to adopt easier and transparent rules for e-commerce so as to support small businesses and encourage them to succeed in the global marketplace.”E-commerce is future…it is the solution for small business,” Ma said. He was addressing a session to launch an initiative, ‘Enabling e-commerce’ to promote policies and practices for small businesses on the sidelines of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The presence of the world’s leading e-commerce player at the WTO is significant as member countries are divided over the way the issue should be handled by the multilateral trade body.While some countries want to push e-commerce to the negotiating table, India and others maintain that binding rules would restrict the policy space to deal with the emerging sector, and favour the continuation of 1998 Work Programme with non-negotiating mandate.
