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Maran critical on WTO draft ministerial declaration

Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran on Tuesday criticised WTO's Draft Ministerial Declaration for Doha meet in November, saying it did not address the concerns of developing nations and a lot of improvement was needed particularly in the implementation package.

The draft declaration on implementation proposes 22 issues in Annex-i for immediate decision by General Council and 19 issues in Annex-ii for decisions to be taken at Doha while large number of remaining implementation issues were left to be addressed in future, Maran told the eighth meeting of National Advisory Committee on International Trade.

Developing nations have demanded that implementation issues needed to be tackled upfront before taking up any fresh commitments, he said.

Referring to the informal meeting of the trade ministers in Mexico last month, he said consensus continued to elude membership of the WTO on new round of trade negotiations.

India is of the view that without a consensus, a new round should not be thrust upon the developing countries.

Maran stressed that India was not isolated on WTO issues and indicated he would have wider consultations with stakeholders in the coming weeks.

Today's meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Commerce Rajiv Pratap Rudy, special secretary Nripendra Misra, leading economists V R Panchmukhi, V A Pai Panandiker, Amit Mitra of FICCI and former commerce secretary P P Prabhu.

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