India today expressed disappointment over the slow progress in the completion of Doha rounds of trade negotiations even though the key interlocutors have reaffirmed their commitment to take the process forward.
"Though the negotiations have been re-energised and in principal the key-interlocutors have reaffirmed their commitment to take the process forward, the progress has been very slow, which could be attributed to various reasons including the recent economic downturn as well as elections in various countries," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told a group of Indian journalists here.
Sharma, who is here to attend the Indo-US Trade Policy Forum meeting, would have an opportunity to interact with the key interlocutors of the Doha Round on the sidelines of an international conference in Washington.
"The good part is that the negotiators are engaged. The process as such is alive and active," Sharma said.
"We have conveyed again to the US and other key interlocutors the need to complete this process at WTO and putting in place a rule based multilateral trade regime which is fair and equitable which immensely contribute to the global commerce and in the long term be beneficial to all economies developing and developed world both," Sharma said.