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US, EU mount pressure on India for new round of negotiations

The US and the European Union mounted pressure on India to agree to a new round of trade negotiations as the fourth WTO Ministerial meeting got underway in Doha on Friday, but New Delhi, armed with the support of some Asian and African countries including Pakistan, is determined to stall the developed countries' effort.

"We are under tremendous pressure from US and European Union who have galvanised themselves after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, but we have decided not to budge as inclusion of issues like investment and competition will be detrimental to domestic industry," a senior Indian official told reporters.

Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran held several bilateral meetings with countries that included Malaysia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Cuba on Thursday night.

These countries are by and large supportive of India's stand to oppose bringing extraneous issues.

Pakistani Commerce Minister Razak Dowood, who is responsible for the 'like-minded group initiative', has agreed to go along with India in opposing introducing trade and investment. But Islamabad owing to compulsions of its difficult economic situation might give in on certain other issues as a trade-off to get more aid from IMF and World Bank.

The US and the EU do not want a repeat of Seattle debacle and are keen to somehow mobilise support for a new round, particularly because any failure post-Sept 11 would send wrong signals about the globalisation. The US, though not keen to press on investment, might go along with EU to make it agree to cut subsidies on agriculture.

The EU is pressing for bringing investment on the negotiating agenda and a comprehensive trade agenda in order to have a 'face-saving' device to deal with powerful farm lobby particularly in France and Germany, who are vehemently against any reduction in farm subsidies.

France is facing elections next spring and agricultural subsidies could become one of the election issues.

There is bound to be some trade-offs among the 142 member countries, but all of them are keeping their cards close to the chest so as to have better bargaining power during negotiations, a WTO official said, commenting on behind-the-scene activities going on in the run-up to the five-day ministerial meeting.

Unlike in Seattle there are no street protests yet, but over 800 NGOs gathered here have launched their media campaign in right earnest, expressing concern over issues related to the environment, plight of the poor nations and violation of workers' rights.

The Greenpeace flagship SV Rainbow Warrior has sailed into Doha to challenge WTO to use the meeting to force the US to join the Kyoto Protocol.

Representatives of Oxfam, Third World network and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said at a joint press conference that the meeting could "end in a stalemate and disarray because of the intransigence of the world's richest countries".

They said developed nations have failed to address the concerns of the poor and have manipulated the WTO process.

A joint NGO statement condemned the process by which the draft ministerial declaration has been transmitted to the Doha Ministerial Conference. It described the action of developed countries as "non-transparent and manipulative process".

They said the draft has not been given the consensual agreement of WTO members and there are serious differences between countries on many of its sections and paragraphs.

The convention is that no new round can be launched if there is no consensus. But in extreme circumstance members can press for voting which would set a bad precedent.

However, the fact remains there is no unanimity on any of the contentious issues and support by member countries is dependent on their trade interests of individual countries and regional groups.

The joint NGO statement said many developing countries have repeatedly opposed launching negotiations on "new issues" such as investment, competition, government procurement, transparency and trade facilitation.

At the most recent WTO general council meetings, a large number of developing countries including the least developed countries one, the African group, spoke up against negotiations on these new issues.

Yet the draft specifically commits ministers to agree to such negotiations, and does not provide for options. This totally ignores the views of the people and governments of a majority of developing countries, the statement said.

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