India emerges key player at WTO meet

The year 2005 gave a new lease of life to WTO negotiations with trade negotiators managing to avert a failure at the Hong Kong ministerial conference to produce a modest deal even as developing countries, including India, formed a united front to thwart any pressure from developed countries, altering the balance of power at the world trade body.

India's alliance building skills were at their best as it managed to bring all the developing, least developed (LDCs), small and vulnerable-economy countries under the umbrella of G-110 as they pushed the agreement at Hong Kong, which for the first time was not dictated by the developed powers but brokered by this alliance.

After struggling for more than a year, convergence was still eluding the 150 members of the WTO as they met at Hong Kong with scaled-down expectations, but only some last minute hard bargaining could successfully break the deadlock on the contentious issues of agriculture, non-agriculture market access and duty-free quota free package for LDCs and secure the deal, which was credible.

Playing a hard negotiator and a clever strategist, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath wrested concessions from developed countries, getting 2013 as the end date of all export subsidies.

The agreement also addressed the domestic concerns of food and livelihood security of the country's poor farmers by way of special products, which will be self-designated and special safeguard mechanism with both price and volume triggers, as also exemption to developing countries from making reductions in their farm support.

Hong Kong also put a clampdown on developed countries' tactic of shifting subsidies from one box to another to continue with them in another form by putting in place adequate provisions.

It also made it clear that food aid given by developed countries as also their export credits and state trading enterprises will have to be disciplined, details of which will be finalised by April 30 next year.

On industrial goods, the Indian industry, which had been on the tenterhooks with developed countries putting pressure for opening up of markets, heaved a sigh of relief as the much popular statement of "less than full reciprocity" was admitted as a standalone provision in the Hong Kong package.

But before the Hong Kong deal was reached, WTO negotiations witnessed some hectic alliance building and formation of various groups. Besides active engagement by G-33 and G-20, the talks saw the G-4 group of the US, EU, India and Brazil meeting at various locations like London, Brussels, Geneva to carry the negotiations forward.

In fact, India played host to the G-20 alliance of developing countries on agriculture and held the group's ministerial meeting here besides attending another in neighbouring Pakistan.

India also attended the key ministerial meetings of the G-33 alliance of special products and special safeguard mechanism, the G-90 and least developed countries in the run up to the Hong Kong conference.

As it donned the role of a key player in the multilateral negotiations, India did not remain ignorant to its regional needs and deepened its engagement at this front also.

It forged several alliances and moved forward on Singapore Free Trade Agreement, South Asian Free Trade Agreement, Asean and Gulf Cooperation Council.