India’s concerns in the Doha agriculture and market-opening for industrial goods — the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) to curb unforeseen imports and opposition to the sectoral tariff elimination for chemicals, industrial machinery, and electrical and electronic items — are adequately reflected in the revised draft texts issued late Saturday.
New Delhi adopted a strong position on how the SSM should be structured for easy implementation.
But exporting countries such as the US, Australia, and Uruguay opposed India’s stance on the duration and frequency for the SSM remedies.
“On the SSM, we have made some progress,” said the chair for Doha agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Crawford Falconer, suggesting “it is uneven, it is fragile, it has never been consolidated into a single structure”.
India also opposed the mandatory participation in sectoral tariff elimination as demanded by the US. The revised text captures the continued divergent positons on this issue too.
An Indian official said the chair for industrial products did an excellent job by placing on the record the progress as well as the continued differences on some elements of the SSM from both sides.
The official also praised the chair for Doha industrial market access negotiations, Ambassador Luzius Wasescha, for accurately reflecting the positions of India and other members, particularly the opposition of key developing countries.
These texts are supposed to provide a platform for convening the ministerial meeting scheduled for Saturday.
