INDIA CAUTIONS ON SINGAPORE ISSUES
Participating in
the informal meeting of WTO trade ministers at Sharm El-Sheikh
in Egypt, India has cautioned on Singapore issues by stating that
the structure and content of the Singapore issues are still unclear
and hence, has reservations about entering into negotiations of
any kind without a full understanding of the nature and structure
of the agreement that would result from such negotiations. India's
statement on Singapore issues i.e., investment, transparency in
government procurement, competition policy and trade facilitation,
was read out on behalf of the Commerce and Industry Minister Shri
Arun Jaitley at the Session on Singapore issues on 22nd June by
Shri S.N. Menon, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and
Industry, as the Minister had to leave for Beijing to join the
Prime Minister on his official visit to China.
The statement said that India had consistently opposed expansion
of the WTO agenda to include new issues. "However, in view of
the interest shown by some trading partners, we embarked on a
clarification process, following the decision taken at Doha. This
was subject to the condition that negotiations on modalities of
(discussing) these issues will proceed after Cancun only after
an explicit consensus... We have engaged actively in the process
of consultation in the three Working Groups constituted for the
purpose .. However, the position is that the structure and content
of the Singapore issues is still unclear. For example, we do not
know the scope and definition of investment: whether it is confined
to foreign direct investment that contributes to trade or whether
it includes portfolio investment and other short-term forms of
capital flows; whether a multilateral Agreement would lead to
more investment and in respect of pre-establishment, what about
sovereignty and policy space. There is no clarity regarding the
scope of competition, whether it applies both to international
and national cartels and, if the former, what kind of multilateral
arrangement will come into existence for the purpose. We have
not even defined the scope of transparency in government procurements
and there is no definite view on the threshold levels or on whether
it would apply to entities other than federal governments. We
are not convinced about the need of multilateralism on these issues".
Stating that a political mandate to take a decision on negotiation
of modalities was possible only after a clear understanding of
the issues involved in a multilateral framework on the Singapore
issues and that negotiations could not commence on the basis of
procedural modalities, the statement also made the point that
the Singapore issues could not be regarded as being part of one
bundle to be treated alike in the matter of modalities. At the
same time, India would participate constructively in the discussions
on these issues in Geneva under the aegis of the WTO General Council,
as in the past, the statement added.
