South Asian Nations Reach Consensus on Stand at WTO MeetingCommerce ministers from major South Asian nations said Thursday in New Delhi that they had arrived at a consensus to protect the interests of the developing countries in multilateral trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).As a two-day ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ended here on Thursday, ministers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan approved a 15- point joint declaration, claiming that the implementation issue, which was a fallout of the Uruguay round talks, should be resolved upfront without any extraneous linkages. The SAARC ministerial meeting was convened to develop a common strategy for all countries in the region during the forthcoming WTO ministerial meeting in Doha in November. "We have arrived at a consensus on the stand to be taken by SAARC members at the forthcoming WTO ministerial meeting for protecting the interests of developing world," Pakistani Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India following a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the SAARC ministers. The SAARC members would also hold meetings with other developing nations and "like-minded" groups, Dawood added. The joint declaration called for increased market access opportunities to be provided by the developed countries to facilitate industrialization in developing countries by eliminating trade distorting subsidies, non-tariff barriers and unreasonable protectionist measures. Interests of developing nations in trade-related areas should be effectively safeguarded before any step is taken to broaden the agenda to include non-trade issues like labor and environment, said the declaration. In agriculture, the declaration emphasized the need for substantial reductions in tariffs and tariff escalations, reduction in domestic support and elimination of all forms of export subsidies given by the developed countries to facilitate greater market access for agricultural products of the developing countries. On the TRIPS (trade-related intellectual property rights) agreement, the declaration said that relevant provisions of the agreement relating to meaningful transfer and dissemination of technology by developed to developing countries should be effectively operationalized. Greater flexibility and clarity were also required so as to ensure affordable access to essential medicines and life saving drugs in keeping with public health concerns of the developing countries, it added. |
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