JAITLEY HOLDS CONSULTATIONS WITH INDIAN
NATIONAL CONGRESS ON WTO ISSUES
Shri Arun Jaitley,
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice,
met the senior representatives of Indian National Congress (INC)
- Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Dr. Manmohan Singh, here today to
discuss the present state of the WTO negotiations and sought their
views and support in evolving a strategy for the WTO negotiations
leading up to the 5th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) at Cancun (Mexico), scheduled to be held next
month, so that India's interests in the key areas viz., agriculture
and non-agricultural market
access and the Singapore issues are fully safeguarded. Shri Satyabrata
Mukherjee, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry; Shri
Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary; and Shri S.N. Menon, Additional
Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, were present at
the discussions.
INC in turn agreed with Shri Jaitley that the special areas of
concern were agriculture and some of the Singapore issues, particularly
investment. They also said that as the situation evolved, they
could be kept informed so that specific suggestions could be given
on issues of particular importance in the key areas of the negotiations.
