US bid to isolate India at WTO thwarted

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US bid to isolate India at WTO thwarted

 

DOHA, Nov 11 (PTI &UNI)

Malaysia, Pakistan and Tanzania were supporting India.

Attempts by the United States and European Union to bulldoze

developing countries to agree to a new round of negotiations received

a major setback with several developing nations joining India in

opposing it in the plenary of WTO Ministerial Conference.

"India is not alone in opposing the new issues, nor is it isolated,"

a WTO spokesman said after making an assessment of the trends at the

ministerial conference on the third day today but added there was a

movement forward from Seattle.

The spokesman told Indian newspersons that from the developing

countries' point of view, a lot of ground has been covered on

implementation issues and the US and EU have agreed to resolve

upfront 41 of the 93 concerns of the developing nations.

They are willing to negotiate the remaining when the new round would

be launched, he added.

The WTO spokesman said Malaysia, Pakistan and Tanzania were

supporting India over not accepting more market access obligations

being pushed by the US trade representative Robert Zoellick and the

European Union.

"India is opposed to inclusion of investment in WTO and they are not

alone in opposing it," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told Indian

journalists.

Mr Rockwell ruled out the possibility of a vote in case no consensus

emerged on the launch of a new round, thus rejecting the much-hyped

theory of India's isolation. '' A vote is impossible,'' he said. If

the investment issue is included on the WTO agenda, it would mean the

developing countries would have to treat multinational companies at

par with domestic industry.

India is being solidly backed by Malaysia, Tanzania and Pakistan on

investment and competition policy or what are known as the 'Singapore

issues', Mr Rockwell said. Pakistani Minister of Commerce, Industries

and Production Abdul Razak Dawood took a strong position in his

address to the plenary. ''We should not negotiate additional

agreements which can exacerbate the imbalance in the multilateral

trading system. The WTO is not the place, certainly not yet, to

negotiate international agreements on investment and competition

policy'', Mr Razak said to the delight of the Indian delegation

headed by Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran.

Malaysia is equally opposed to overloading the WTO agenda with

investment because of the 'Bhoomiputra' policy of giving the 'son of

the soil' advantage to its industry.

On the issue of TRIPS, Brazil and all the African nations are united

in their rejection of the American proposal which would give national

governments the power to break monopoly rights of the pharmaceutical

MNCs only in case of epidemics like HIV. However, India and other

countries are demanding that national governments retain the right to

break the MNC monopoly for reaching public health to the poor.

There is division in the European Union. These internal divisions

point to the fact that India is not cracking against the expectations

of the developed countries and Western media.