Lucky if Doha talks concluded by 2014: India's Commerce Secretary

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) India today said it will take at least two more years for completion of the Doha Round of talks on a global trade deal, as it will take time for things to settle down in the US after elections are held next year. "The US goes into the election mode (in 2012) and then (we can) look at 2013, as by the time the (US) administration comes into office... thereafter putting people in place and getting negotiations restarted, if by the end of 2013, (we) have a deal, you will be pretty damn lucky. My guess is you are looking closer to 2014," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said at a Ficci industry chamber function here. Last week, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ended its crucial biennial Ministerial Conference without making any headway on the way forward for the Doha Round of talks. The Doha Round, which began in 2001, has missed several deadlines due to the entrenched positions taken by developed and developing nations on issues like tariffs on agricultural goods and free market access. He said until the developed countries get out of the global economic crisis, conclusion of the round is not possible. "It was pretty clear from mid-2009 that until the great recession played itself out, there was going to be no appetite in the developed world for taking on any trade agreement... because they are completely overtaken by the domestic fallout of the disaster that are happening to their economics," he said. Due to falling economic growth and rising unemployment in the developed countries, "Nobody cares what is happening in Geneva or Doha," he added. Blaming the rich nations for not moving on the proposal to give duty concessions to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the Commerce Secretary said the developed world has a "lot to answer for that and not the developing nations". He said India had already announced its tariff preference scheme for poor countries in 2008. "We did our bit. But please ask yourself how many (developed countries) have done it and done it transparently tariff line by tariff line... apart from empty words," he added. India had said the credibility of the WTO depends on delivering a package of benefits for the poorest countries at the Ministerial Conference that concluded last week, but there was no movement in this direction. Commenting on the functioning of global instituitions during times of global economic uncertainty, Khullar said of all the institutions that were created after World War II, "The WTO was exactly not found dysfunctional. On the contrary, it works.... It is doing its job. Others either lost theirlegitimacy or clout". Khullar said that attempts were made to revive the stalled Doha Round of talks, but they "got precisely nowhere". Explaining the reason behind this, he said due to the changing global environment, the role of emerging economies in the world arena has increased and these developing countries are no longer willing to follow the developed world's lead blindly. "The world has changed.... The centre of gravity of economic activity has completely shifted. So it is no longer possible to say that since manufacturing product exports are primarily between developed countries, we (rich nations) will decide what the tariff regime is and rest of you lump it. That is not possible any more," he said. PTI