WTO should be turned to opportunity: Joshi

India needs strong will to turn the WTO from a threat into an opportunity to expand its global market manifold, HRD Minister Murli Manohar J...

India needs strong will to turn the WTO from a threat into an opportunity to expand its global market manifold, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said on Monday.

‘‘There is no second opinion that the WTO is a threat to the Indian economy. But we can also turn this into opportunity by making Indian brands acceptable in international markets. This, of course, calls for strong will and hard work,’’ he said, at a seminar on ‘Fifth Ministerial Conference of WTO-Swadeshi agenda,’ organised by the Swadesi Reasearch Institute.

Chief sticks by end-2004 deadline for world trade talks

Washington: WTO director general Panitchpakdi warned economic leaders that missing an end-2004 deadline for freeing world trade would be “damaging” for the global economy. Trade negotiators missed a deadline in March to strike a deal on the critical area of agricultural trade, raising some questions about the timing of an overall agreement. “There is no reason to begin doubting the possibility of meeting the target date of end-2004 for finishing the negotiations,” he said. —AFP

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Citing an example of how India could turn a threat into an opportunity, he said the country’s space programme was utilising 100 per cent swadeshi technology which was of the ‘highest’ quality.

‘‘The US initially decided not to give us the supercomputer. So we created one on our own. We also exported two supercomputers to Russia. When the US finally allowed IBM to sell us supercomuters, we told them that we already have those in possession,’’ the minister said. Describing ‘swadeshi’ as ‘economy of the people, for the people and by the people,’ he said it was aimed at providing a reasonable standard of living without inviting consumerism.

‘‘It is aimed at making the country economically and politically powerful so that its voice is heard by the international world.’’