India is yet to clearly state where it stands on some informal game-changing ideas being pushed by the United States on how to conclude the long-stalled Doha trade talks, but senior trade officials from key developing countries - China, South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia, among others - remain opposed to any “new process” at this juncture, BS was told.
On Thursday, Commerce minister Anand Sharma will participate in an informal ministerial meeting in Paris, being hosted by Australia to prepare the ground for intensifying the Doha trade talks.
In about three weeks, Sharma has issued several signals about his government’s commitment to conclude the Doha talks, saying it is a priority issue for New Delhi. He also made it known that India and the US are no longer daggers crossed on the special safeguard mechanism flexibility for developing countries, one of the many issues at the breakdown of the Doha trade negotiations.
More important, Sharma indicated his willingness to consider new ideas from his US counterpart, Ambassador Ron Kirk, to find a “path” towards concluding the Doha talks.
While many industrialised countries, including some developing nations, praised Sharma for adopting a conciliatory stance to break the “impasse”, several other members in the developing world are apprehensive about New Delhi’s overall stance, especially its latest discussions with the US Trade Representative, trade envoys said.
Ahead of the Paris meeting on Thursday, a senior Chinese trade official told BS, “We are opposed to any new process as being demanded by the US. The process which is set out in the Doha mandate is clear and we don’t want to create any new process,” the official said.
Echoing a similar sentiment, a Brazilian trade official said, “We are ready to hear what USTR Ron Kirk is going to say in Paris and what we need is not a new process, but more focused engagement and talking at a bilateral level.”
An Indonesian trade official said his minister, Mari Pengestu, had conveyed in unambiguous terms at the recent Bali meeting of the Cairns Group ministers that developing countries are prepared to conclude the Doha talks based on the established route of modalities first and scheduling later.