India and China should cooperate in ensuring fair and equitable gains to the developing countries, particularly in agriculture and anti-dumping, in the forthcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations agreed at the Doha ministerial, chairman of Shanghai WTO affairs consultation centre, Wang Zhan, said here today.
"We are here to explore what India and China can do in the new WTO trade negotiations. How we can together protect interests and gains for the developing countries," Zhan said at an interactive session on China's entry into WTO organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
Identifying agriculture and anti-dumping duties as two main areas for cooperation, Zhan said both countries should join hands to amend the rules under the WTO pertaining to anti-dumping.
He said China was keen to learn from the Indian experience on how to protect the interests of the domestic industry under the WTO regime. "India joined the WTO a good five years before China and has done a good job in protecting the interests of the domestic industry. We fear that our agriculture will be hit the most after our entry into the WTO," he said.
He said that following accession to the WTO, China would have to abide by the rules of multilateral trade but the country is keen for a faster and more balanced development of bilateral trade with India.
"China has a global trade of $ 400 billion and we want to ensure balance of both exports and imports between the two countries, especially increase in our exports to India," Zhan said.
He also said the coming era would belong to the east, with China, Russia and India as the only economies with a GDP growth rate of over five per cent. Zhan said China had already submitted a report to the WTO on the subsidies which existed in the country while assuring Indian industry that non-WTO compatible export subsidies would be removed.
On anti-dumping, Zhan said China had initiated 11 cases against foreign enterprises in sectors such as paper, chemicals and steel products of which four had been concluded and six were still pending.
Nearly 400 anti-dumping cases had been initiated against China since 1995, he said.
Stating that the large number of anti-dumping cases filed by India against China was part of the normal commercial practice and was best left to the specified agencies, Zhan added that personally he did not wish to see so many cases filed by India against China.
