Asia Pulse |July 30, 2003
Articulating the trade concerns expressed by developing countries, India and China have sought greater transparency in the WTO to ensure that there are no last minute surprises in upcoming negotiations.
The two countries' ministers, meeting at WTO mini-ministerial in Montreal on Monday, said they share similar views on some of the more contentious issues like market access in agriculture, TRIPS and Public Health and four Singapore issues, namely investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation.
Arun Shourie, the Indian disinvestment and telecom minister, and Lu Fuyuan, the Chinese commerce minister, emphasised that documents should be made available to member countries well in advance, allowing for due deliberation and coordination of positions before the Cancun WTO meeting.
The two ministers exchanged views on key WTO issues and said, "Transparency also means that there should be no last minute surprises sprung on delegates, which had characterised the past rounds of multilateral trade negotiations".
On the contentious issues raised by Singapore, China concurred with India's view that in keeping with the Doha mandate there should be agreement first on the modalities on the basis of explicit consensus before entering into negotiations.
Agreeing with Indian stand, the Chinese minister said there should be coordination on substantive modalities and implications must be fully undertsood. "We should not be asked to take the first step without knowing where the journey will end", he said.Los Angeles Weekly:
