WTO: Left, Opposition unhappy with govt

Both Opposition and Left MPs were unhappy with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath’s statement in the Lok Sabha on the outcome of the Hong Kon...

Both Opposition and Left MPs were unhappy with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath’s statement in the Lok Sabha on the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation.

In his statement to the House, the Commerce Minister stated that the WTO ministerial declaration in Hong Kong had addressed India’s ‘‘core concerns’’ and that there were ‘‘significant gains’’ in agriculture with safeguards for farmers.

After Kamal Nath’s statement, the BJP’s V K Malhotra said that the draft agreed upon at Honk Kong was not in India’s interest, while Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI pointed out that the minister’s claims on the positive outcomes were exaggerated. During these statements, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee agreed that there should be a full discussion/debate on the matter.

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The minister in his statement said that the document ‘‘finally agreed upon, addresses our core concerns and interests and provides us enough negotiating space for future work leading up to modalities’’.

He added that ‘‘in agriculture, in domestic support, developing countries like India with no aggregate measurement of support commitments will be exempt from any cuts on their de minimis support’’. He also said that the green box criteria would be reviewed so that programmes of developing countries which have minimal trade distorting effect would be incorporated in it.

Furthermore, Kamal Nath informed the Lok Sabha that ‘‘all forms of export subsidies by developed countries another export measures with equivalent effect such as export credits, guarantees and insurance in excess of 180 days would, among other things, be eliminated by the end of 2013’’.