CII for convergence on WTO issues

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said negotiators at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial in Hong Kong should focus on building convergence on all issues that needed immediate attention for completing the Doha Round at the earliest.

The industry association said it did not support a simple Swiss Formula for tariff reductions in the area of industrial goods and would rather like to see a Swiss-type formula proposed by India, Argentina and Brazil.

Releasing the CII position paper on the subject, chairman of CII's WTO and other trade agreements committee R V Kanoria said the negotiators would have to ensure that adequate flexibility for developing and least developed countries were built into all areas of negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda.

"The ministerial should focus on the development perspective of the Doha round. We are concerned that three important aspects of the Doha Round "" NAMA, agriculture and development "" have not been resolved yet. Hence we stress convergence between countries before Hong Kong so that the Ministerial provides the road map for an urgent completion of the round," he said.

The position paper suggested tackling problems like market access, export subsidies and domestic support in the agriculture sector simultaneously. It also underscored the need to address the issues of food security and livelihood concern and added that ambition should cut across all sectors of negotiations and should not be restricted to the few sectors of interest for developed country members.

"This is a Development Round and the developing and least developed countries need to gain real market access," Kanoria said.