JAITLEY CONSULTS LEFT PARTIES ON WTO ISSUES
Continuing the process
of consultations with all stakeholders including political parties
in the run-up to the Cancun Ministerial Conference of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled to be held next month, Shri
Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law &
Justice, held consultations here yesterday with senior representatives
of the Left Parties on WTO issues. Among those who attended
were representatives of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
– Shri Rup Chand Pal, MP; Shri Tarit Baran Topdar, MP; and Shri
Lakshman Seth, MP – and from the Communist Party of India (CPI)
Shri Prabodh Panda, MP. Shri Satyabrata Mukherjee, Minister
of State for Commerce & Industry and Shri Dipak Chatterjee,
Commerce Secretary were also present.
The Minister agreed
with the MPs that WTO was a national issue, not just a political
issue and that building up of an informed opinion would facilitate
effective participation based on national consensus in the key
areas of interest to India. Shri Jaitley said he saw a consensus
cutting across party lines in areas where the country’s interests
would have to be safeguarded, especially in agriculture and investment.
CPI and CPI (M) felt
that the critical issues in the negotiations would be agriculture,
services, Singapore issues and implementation issues. In agriculture,
they expressed concern over the continuance of exceptionally high
levels of agricultural subsidy being given by the developed countries
and urged the government to press for the creation of a Development
Box or Livelihood Box. While CPI (M) said that education should
be excluded from offer in the services negotiations as "rampant
commercialisation" would harm our own educational system,
CPI expressed the view that both education and health care should
be excluded from the services negotiations. They expressed opposition
to Singapore issues – especially investment – being negotiated
in the WTO. They also expressed concern over lack of progress
in implementation and special & differential (S&D) treatment
issues which were aimed at improving market access for the developing
countries.
The Left parties
stressed the need to mobilise support of like-minded parties especially
with Asian countries including China, with a view to forming pressure
groups on critical issues in the WTO as also the need for strengthening
India’s economic diplomacy in the area of multilateral trade.
One member suggested that there should be a review paper on what
the country had gained from the WTO regime.
