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Second WTO draft declaration worst than first: Maran

Coming down strongly on developed countries, India on Wednesday described the second draft of WTO ministerial as 'worse' than the first one and said New Delhi would not change its stand of resolving implementation issues upfront.

"The second draft is worse than the first one," Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran told reporters when asked if it was an improvement from the earlier one.

Charging the industrialised nations with 'exploiting' the developing nations, Maran criticised the developed countries for sidelining the developing world from the agenda making process.

He said India would stick to first addressing implementation issues at WTO.

"WTO is loosing its transparency. It should not only be neutral but also appear to be neutral. Even the appearance of neutrality is missing because developing countries seem to have no role in fixing the agenda. The developed countries are pushing us into a reactive mood," Maran said at a release of a book Salvaging the WTO's future: Doha and Beyond.

Later asked by reporters if India would participate if a new round was launched at Doha, Maran said, "let us wait and see, why are you creating a hypothesis?"

In reply to another query on the WTO issues, Maran merely quipped "let us hope the Doha meeting is held".

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