NATIONAL SEMINAR ON RTAs ON 27 &
28 MARCH
A National Seminar
is being organised on 27-28 March 2003 by the Department of Commerce
in collaboration with UNCTAD and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
(IIFT) on WTO Negotiations on Regional Trading Arrangements (RTAs).
Under the Doha work programme, negotiations are currently underway
in WTO to improve and clarify disciplines and procedures concerning
RTAs.
There has been exponential
growth of RTAs during the last decade. As on October 2002, 255
RTAs have been notified to the GATT/WTO and this number is estimated
to reach upto 300 by the end of 2005. Almost 60% of global trade
is now estimated to be channelled through RTAs.
India has always
been a strong votary of the multilateral trading system established
under the WTO. At the same time it also recognises that RTAs can
be complementary to the multilateral trading system. It is, however,
important to ensure that efforts to create regional economic spaces
should not run counter to the strengthening of the multilateral
trading system and to greater trade liberalisation at the multilateral
level.
The Seminar would
be inaugurated by Shri. S.N. Menon, Additional Secretary, Department
of Commerce. The participants would also be addressed by Shri
Prabir Sengupta, DG, IIFT and a representative of UNCTAD.
A large number of
national and international experts are participating in the Seminar.
Amongst the prominent Indian experts are Mr. Bhagirath Lal Das,
former Indian Ambassador to GATT, Mr. S. Narayanan, former Indian
Ambassador to WTO, Prof. A. Hoda of ICRIER, Mr. Harshvardhan Singh,
Secretary-cum-Adviser, TRAI and several well known academicians
and trade representatives. The international experts are Mr. Sam
Laird, Chief, Trading System Branch, UNCTAD, Mr. Bijit Bora, Counsellor,
Economic Research Division, WTO and Mr. Luis Abugattas
Majluf, Economic Affairs Officer, Trade Division, UNCTAD.
The Seminar would
discuss in dedicated sessions a large gamut of issues concerning
RTAs like the emerging RTA landscape and its impact assessment;
identification of ways for clarification and improvement of existing
GATT Article XXIV; inter-relationship between WTO disciplines
on RTAs and WTO rules in areas like Sanitary and Phytosanitary
regulations, Technical Barriers to Trade regulations, Safeguards,
Custom Valuation, etc; identification of possible areas of improvement
in GATS Article V (regional agreements involving services). The
concluding Session on 28.3.2003 would be devoted to identification
of possible elements that India could propose for negotiations
on RTAs.
