India calls for 2-stage process to conclude Doha trade talks

Geneva (PTI) - India Tuesday called for two-stage
process to conclude the moribund Doha trade negotiations,
stressing that members focus on issues concerning the poorest
countries and developmental priorities in the first stage.
The second stage should address all other outstanding
issues to conclude the Doha Round "at some future date", said
India's trade envoy to the WTO Jayant Dasgupta.
He said this approach will help finalise the "early
harvest" package by December. Several developing countries
like China, Brazil and South Africa have concurred with India.
"In these rather uncertain times, the heartening thing to
note today is that there is growing consensus that the Early
Harvest package has to necessarily include all LDC (least
developed countries) issues and some other issues which have a
strong development component, for instance the implementation
issues (raised by developing countries) in Cancun," Dasgupta
told members at the World Trade Organisation.
LDCs want duty-free and quota-free market access in
industrialised countries, particularly in the US. Besides,
they want steep reduction in cotton subsidies provided by the
US and the EU.
At an informal trade negotiations committee meeting,
Dasgupta cautioned against expanding the list of issues for
"early harvest" beyond the LDC concerns.
If every member places their demands to be included in
the early harvest, it would create difficulties in reaching a
conclusion by December, Dasgupta said.
With only 75 working days left for the eighth WTO
ministerial meeting in December, India urged members to be
"pragmatic," maintaining that all efforts should be made for
delivering the LDCs and other developmental issues.
Developing countries have underscored the need for
addressing the developmental issues on a priority basis
instead of making the agenda heavier.
"If the world is not ready to conclude a Development
Round, and fulfil the promises made in Doha, we should all at
least step up to the plate and find a fast track mechanism to
address the concerns of the poorest and most vulnerable
members of the WTO," South African ambassador Faizel Ismail of
told PTI.
The US is opposed to a small set of developmental issues
in the "early harvest". It wants various other elements like
fisheries subsidies, trade facilitation, and environmental
goods and services.
The US said it would not be possible to address cotton
without first finalising all the commitments in the Doha
agriculture dossier.
The European Union supports the LDC package as part of
early harvest but said it should include issues such as trade
facilitation as genuine win-win for the whole membership.
Meanwhile, WTO chief Pascal Lamy said, "The immediate
challenge, then, is to generate momentum on realistic,
credible and achievable targets for a positive result by the
end of this year, so that we get down to working on them
without delay."