India wants to decide on 2010 Doha timeline

India wants participants at the next week's informal ministerial meeting in Delhi [ Images ] to address a range of procedural issues for concluding the long-stalled Doha Development Agenda negotiations in 2010.

"The road ahead would not be easy, there are a host of unresolved issues, not just in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (Nama), but also in services, Trips, Rules and other areas across the single undertaking," India [ Images ] argued in a four-page discussion paper, a copy of which was offered to Business Standard.

The statement has put paid to Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean's "controversial" ideas, who wanted specific issues in agriculture and market-opening for industrial goods to be discussed at the meeting, said a Geneva-based trade official. "It is naïve on the part of the Australian minister to discuss specific issues when there is no complete US negotiating team at this point," the official added.

Given the numerous signals of commitments from several quarters, "it is now time for members to draw these separate threads together, weaving them into a response of solidarity to move the multilateral process forward," the report noted.