'Landing Zone' on Doha Round close: Mr. Harsha Singh, WTO
05 Nov '07
3 min read
The prospect of a successful conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) Talks in the WTO is very bright with member countries engaging in serious negotiations in the last couple of months.
The “landing zone” for taking the Doha Round towards a successful conclusion looks very close, according to Mr. Harsha V Singh, Deputy Director General of the WTO.
He was speaking at a session on 'WTO Negotiations: Will it be a Development Round? – An update on the Doha negotiations' organised by the Confederation of the Indian Industry (CII).
Mr. Singh said that the Chairs of Agriculture and NAMA in the WTO will come up with new texts in the week of November 19th 2007, which would take into account the concerns raised by member countries in the recent weeks and is expected to move the Round forward.
A package of texts covering the various aspects Agriculture, NAMA, Trade Facilitation and Rules is likely to be tabled by November-end thereby providing an impetus to concluding the Round.
In the area of agriculture, Mr. Singh said that the two areas of concerns for India – special products (SPs) and special safeguard mechanism (SSM) – are also getting addressed. He said the Chair of the Agriculture Negotiations, Ambassador Crawford Falconer, Ambassador of Canada to WTO has proposed that the minimum number of Special Products should be 8% of total tariff lines.
The final number may be more as well, he said. On NAMA and Services he said India's concerns are on the negotiating table and will be met. Mr Singh is very much optimistic about this Round to be a development round.
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