Published by the Press, Information & Culture Wing, Embassy of India

In this Issue
(February 15, 1999)

South Asia Region

India's Foreign Relations

Economy & Trade

Upcoming Events

Opinion

Feature: Interview with Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister

Archives | Search | Index

INDIA TO SEEK LIBERALISATION IN MOVEMENT OF PERSONNEL IN SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS

BETTER MARKET ACCESSS FOR AGRO PRODUCTS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES URGED COMMERCE MINISTER ADDRESSES MEETING OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC MINISTERS OF G-15

The Union Commerce Minister, Shri Ramakrishna Hegde, has said that Indias objective in the services negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should be to achieve substantial liberalisation in sectors and modes of supply of export interest to developing countries including, in particular, the movement of natural persons. It is also necessary to identify sectors of current and potential interest to developing countries as well as invisible barriers to their services exports. Such an assessment would help developing countries in future negotiations and locating potential "niches" of comparative advantage. Further, article IV of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) dealing with increasing participation of developing countries needs to be closely monitored and assessed to have a clear picture of benefits that have emerged for developing countries by taking commitments under GATS. In his address at the third meeting of Trade and Economic Ministers of the Group of Fifteen (G-15) in conjunction with the Ninth G-15 Summit at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 6^th February, Shri Hegde said that, " fresh negotiations under the agreement on agriculture and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) should commence, as mandated, after 1.1.2000. Such negotiations, as also mandated reviews of other Agreements should not be preponed or the issues involved therein pre-judged". Regarding the Agreement on Agriculture, he said that developing countries need to be provided requisite flexibility within the Agreement, especially flexibility in taking care of food security concerns and employment security for the agrarian poor. He also stressed that the greater opportunity and access by the developed countries to the agricultural products of interest to developing countries, mandated in the Agreement, has not been provided as yet. The meeting of G-15 Trade and Economic Ministers provides a forum for exchange of views on possible approaches for reform of international monetary and financial system relating to trade and development in the context of the current world economic situation. The meeting is also intended to consolidate G-15 positions on multilateral trade issues in the context of the third-Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in the US later this year. Shri Hegde emphasised that the process of arriving at a multilateral trading system could be speeded up if the inherent equity of the WTO system and its ability to meaningfully address the special concerns of the developing countries were shown to the common people in these countries. The Minister expressed his concern at the increasing tendency of developed countries to push new issues, extraneous to trade, on the WTO agenda. Referring to inclusion of non-trade issues such as attempts to link trade and labour in the WTO agenda, Shri Hegde said that there should be a genuine, universal resolve to achieve core labour standards in all countries, the objective being attained through supportive rather than trade linked punitive action. Shri Hegde also pointed out that the talk of negotiations for a Multilateral Framework on Investment appeared premature, particularly when the developing countries were encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) autonomously according to their long-term developmental needs. The Commerce Minister also highlighted that the multilateral system had so far not been able to effectively address the issue of meaningful integration of the Least Developed Countries(LDCs) with the already miniscule share of the LDCs in world trade having fallen further. Shri Hegde stated that the G-15 Symposium held in New Delhi in Decenber, 1998 had made an outstanding contribution to a better understanding of the issue of Special and Differential Treatment provisions in the Uruguay Round Agreements. He stressed that the countries missions in Geneva could be asked to work out concrete action based on these recommendations, which could be further channelised in the General Council leading up to the Third Ministerial Conference in the US later this year. Shri Hegde pointed out that an Expert Group from among the G-15 countries could be constituted to suggest ways of extending the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) concept to new areas, the GSP being an important tool for enhancing exports and for promoting industrialization. He said that considering the GATS, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) were an integral part of the WTO framework, there was a need to extend the GSP concept to new areas such as services, technology transfer and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Referring to the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP), he said it provided a mechanism for negotiations in successive stages for establishing trade preferences for promoting trade and economic co-operation among developing countries . He mentioned that a recent study by the United Nations conference on Trade and development (UNCTAD) had estimated that a thirty percent tariff concession across the board in GSTP was likely to result in an 8%-9% increase in the mutual trade of GSTP participants G-15 members could catalyse the South-South trade by closer co-operation within the GSTP mechanism.