After trust vote win, Kamal Nath to rejoin WTO talk

The participating nations and Indian delegates at the fifth round of Doha global trade talk in Geneva felt relief after the victory of UPA government in confidence vote as a minority government would not have been able to take India’s stand along with the demands of developing countries in concrete. Kamal Nath, the Union Commerce Minister of India would now rejoin the talk with full enthusiasm.

The 33-odd nations- the participatory nations in WTO talk- were keenly watching the UPA’s trust-vote with high nosiness and felt sigh of relief when UPA government won the trust vote by 275-256 in the parliament. This victory of UPA government has cleared the way of Kamal Nath to participate in the talk with full passion and strength, as India is a crucial participant in the talk especially as the key ally of the developing countries, which are opposing developed nation’s proposal in the talk.

Kamal Nath, who had reached to Geneva- the headquarter of WTO where the talk was schedule to begin from July 21, on July 18, three days before the opening day to unite the developing nations and to pave the way of ensuring country’s key demand to be considered strongly, had left the WTO headquarter on Saturday evening to save its government by participating in the trust-vote and to prepare the atmosphere in favour of the government.

Nath in Geneva had attended a G-33 meeting and thereafter met Alfredo Chiaradia, secretary of state of commerce and international relations of Argentina and Celso Amorim, foreign minister of Brazil. He also met European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and US trade representative Susan Schwab to ensure India’s interest in the talk before the beginning of the meeting during his two days stay in Geneva.

After saving his government from collapsing, now Kamal Nath would move to Geneva again to save the trade talk that was in gloom in his absence. Several allied nations which welcomed his rejoining as a Brazilian delegate member said, “This is a positive step. This means that minister Kamal Nath will be able to come back and join the talks again and push the talks forward with all his strength.”

Another delegate from the rich nations has also expressed joy in this regard. “We look forward to Indian commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath joining the talks. India is an important leader in this round. It is great that this issue seems to be behind him and he will be able to join (the mini-ministerial meeting here) and fully participate in the talks,” said Sean M Spicer, assistant US trade representative, Public and Media Affairs.

The Doha round which would conclude on July 25, had failed to meet the deadlines several times earlier after its launch in 2001 in respect to the major differences between the rich and poor nations on the issue of lacking commitments on liberalisation of global trade.

Earlier, Nath had been granted permission by WTO to appoint his top visiting delegate Commerce Secretary G K Pillai in his place to participate in the talk in the green room- the negotiating room for the participating ministers- for the first two days before leaving Geneva.

In the first two days of fifth round of Doha trade negotiations, US has announced to reduce its Overall Trade-distorting Domestic Support (OTDS) to USD15 billion from whooping USD46-billion, while India has demanded to keep it to USD7-billion.

“There cannot be an agreement, if developed nations don’t the same as those asking developing countries to bring their industrial tariffs below the current applied levels,” said Kamal Nath before beginning the trade talk as the key developing countries including India, China, South Africa and Brazil have accused the developed nations to prepare such a proposal, which is only suitable for rich nations and may prove a ‘loosing deal’ for the poor nations.

“The balance between agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) was badly skewed against us,”accused developing countries.

India along with China, South Korea, Indonesia have said that without strong flexibilities for "special" products and the special safeguard mechanism, it would be difficult for them to settle on an agreement.