Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, DEC 1: Prime Minister Vajpayee today asserted that Indian interests would be fully protected and promoted at the ongoing Seattle round of WTO negotiations and said the country was totally opposed to link trade with several other issues.
Making a statement in Lok Sabha, he said India was opposed to linking trade with issues like core labour standards, environment, coherent global architecture, investment. It was also against involvement of NGOs in negotiation and competition policy.
Charging the government with surrender to US pressures, agitated members of Left Front, Samajwadi Party and RJD, walked out of Lok Sabha protesting the absence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to clarify the position.
The members remained dissatisfied with the assurance of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan that the Prime Minister, who was preoccupied with a luncheon meeting with the Vietnamese President, would be present in the House at 1700 hrs to answer queries on the WTO meet.
Earlier, agitated Opposition had forced an hour-long adjournment before lunch break claiming that the government had entered into a "clandestine" deal with Washington against the interests of one billion Indians.
Allaying the Opposition fears, Vajpayee said it was acceptable for India to take up for negotiations, a few new items provided implementation issues from the Uruguay Round were resolved to Indian satisfaction. These are matters of negotiations at Seattle, he said.
Vajpayee said India was not in favour of wide range of negotiations, which have been often called as millennium round of negotiations’.Vajpayee said the WTO negotiations had been delayed because of demonstrations and disturbances by various groups. Even the US delegation could not arrive at the venue and the inaugural session was abandoned.
