CII Online announce that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General, Pascal Lamy to ensure that developing countries are given special and differential treatment (S&D) as per the mandate of the on - going Doha negotiations.
In a letter to Lamy, the Director General of CII, N Srinivasan said that CII supports the multilateral negotiations of the WTO and wants the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) to be a success. “However, the final outcome should be a win-win for all countries and the development aspect of the Doha Round should be fully honoured”.
The S&D and the “less than full reciprocity” principles of the Doha Round will ensure that tariff reduction commitments by developing countries will be lower than those of developed countries.
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Srinivasan said that Indian industry would like to see higher market access in developed country markets for products manufactured by developing countries at the end of the Doha round.
This will be best achieved by targeting tariff peaks and tariff escalations in products like textiles, leather products etc manufactured by developing country markets, the letter said.
CII is of the view that in agriculture there should be a meaningful proposal from the developed countries in areas like: market access and domestic support, Srinivasan said.
The letter added that there is a need for some real progress in agriculture from all developed country member and these have to be on the table before they demand anything from developing countries on NAMA.
CII stated that the plurilateral route been followed by the member countries and two important modes of supply where market access commitments are needed for the Indian industry are mode - 1 (cross border supply) and mode - 4 (movement of natural persons).
Confederation of Indian Industry