India today strongly
asserted its interest in securing greater market access for
its goods and services in several sectors in the ongoing negotiations
on Market Access in Non-agricultural products. Participating
in the Session on Market Access in Non-agricultural Products
at the informal meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
trade ministers in Tokyo today, Shri Jaitley spoke of the high
priority that India attaches to achieving significant increase
in market access for products of interest to developing countries
including India, such as textiles and leather.
He made the important point that the modalities for negotiations
on Market
Access in Non-Agricultural Products must fully factor in the
need of developing countries for a more flexible use of tariff
protection to assist their economic development as also to meet
their special needs for maintaining tariffs for revenue purposes,
as specifically recognised in the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
Pointing out that India had been autonomously liberalising its
tariffs, the Minister regretted that the various proposals based
on the Swiss formula floated by different countries did not
take into account the principle of less-than-full reciprocity
in tariff reduction commitments by developing countries. He
suggested that instead it would be better to use a simple reduction
technique from bound tariffs in a phased manner so as to fully
take care of the concerns of developing countries in terms of
their revenue considerations and the requirements of their sensitive
employment generating sectors. Shri Jaitley emphasised that
for India, with its diverse industrial base covering many products
and different levels of technology, the development aspect in
working out the modalities for Non-Agricultural Products Market
Access negotiations would be vital.
Intervening in
the discussion on Implementation issues and Special and
Differential (S&D) Treatment, Shri Jaitley joined issue
with some developed
countries' participants by strongly refuting their criticism
that S&D and
Implementation issues were not matters of substance but of tactics.
He made it clear that Implementation and S&D issues were
integral parts of the package finalised at Doha as would be
evident from a reading of the Doha Ministerial Declaration (Para
12) and cautioned that any attempt to renege from these commitments
would mean unravelling of the Doha package. Citing specific
examples of Implementation issues of great significance to developing
countries, Shri Jaitley gave the examples of operationalisation
of Article 15 of the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement which provided
for constructive remedies in anti-dumping cases for developing
countries; the Agreement on Customs Valuation provisions to
facilitate exchange of information in order to check under-invoicing
of imported goods and several other areas where concrete examples
had been submitted to WTO bodies but no progress had been made
due to resistance from the developed countries. The same situation
prevailed in respect of S&D provisions of WTO Agreements
on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; Subsidies and Countervailing
Measures; Technical Barriers to Trade; Dispute Settlement and
others which were of considerable commercial importance to developing
countries.
"We cannot accept the view that issues of concern to developing
countries
are less important than other issues or that there is a hierarchy
of issues in the WTO and that Implementation and the S&D
issues come lower down in the hierarchy. The WTO Agreements
constitute a set of rules for facilitating trade and Implementation
issues relate to perceived imbalances and asymmetries in the
rules. We are not referring to new S&D issues, arising out
of any forthcoming negotiations but the existing S&D issues
which are already incorporated in the Uruguay Round Agreement
and the Doha Ministerial Declaration" as the tangible benefits
that had been expected for developing countries from such provisions
had not really materialised, Shri Jaitley said.
