India will speak out ag­ainst trade protectionism in the WTO meeting of 153 trade

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ministers in Geneva beginning on Mo­nday. Co­mmerce minister Anand Sharma will also meet his US counterpart Ron Kirk and EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton apart from trade ministers of Japan and Au­stralia. India will use these bilateral mee­tings to try and win support for its core interests in the ongoing Doha round of trade negotiations.

Sharma indicated this before boarding a flight to Geneva on Saturday. At WTO India will take up the issue of certain countries raising trade barriers in the wake of the global economic meltdown despite commitments to the contrary from the leaders at the summit meetings of group of 20 (G-20) countries in Washington DC, London and Pittsburgh held over the past one year.

G-20 leaders had directed their trade negotiating teams to work towards concluding the Doha development round in 2010. But there has been little progress towards reaching a trade deal by the new deadline for concluding the Doha round. Though the WTO ministerial meeting is not slated to take up substantive issues related to the eight-year-long Doha talks, Sharma said that it would give countries like India an opportunity to consult other stakeholders in negotiating a deal.

“I will be meeting key interlocutors from the US, the EU, Japan and Australia. I would look to discuss the economic crisis and its adverse impact on LDCs (least developed co­untries) and also (address) the trend in some countries to erect barriers to trade,” Sharma said. He wa­rned that protectionism could delay the economic recovery process.

The issues on the table are many, ranging from agriculture trade liberalisation and industrial duty cuts to services. “It will be an occasion to review pro­gress of negotiations. The impasse was broken in Delhi (mini-ministerial in August)…we will be able to assess (negotiations) on agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services,” Sharma said.

In an interview posted on WTO website, director general Pascal Lamy said: “The ministerial conference is the highest body in the WTO. We haven’t had such meetings since 2005 and in the meantime lots of things have happened.” Sharma agreed. “It will be the first full ministerial meeting after the global meltdown…in my opinion about 80 per cent of the issues (in WTO) have been harmonised,” he said.

Ahead of the meeting of all trade ministers at Geneva, chairman of working group constituted by the US lawmakers on trade issues Michael Michaud has come up with suggestions which have shocked trade diplomats. He has said that the Doha round of talks should be scrapped and fresh negotiations called based on labour rights, domestic wo­rkers and environment st­andards. Shama, however, re­fused to comment on th­ese contentious issues.

Indian industry is looking forward to a successful conclusion of the Doha round in 2010. Exuding co­nfidence that the stalled Doha talks may get a fillip in Geneva, president of Ficci Harsh Pati Singhania said: “This (concluding WTO talks by 2010) has become rather imperative in the present context as successful conclusion of the Doha round would provide much-needed momentum to worldwide recovery.”