India calls for rejig of text on industrial goods

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New Delhi, May 22 : Describing the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) revised negotiating text on industrial goods as one designed primarily to help the developed countries gain more market access in the developing world, India on Thursday called for another revision and said it expects the new text to be released by the first week of June.

Official sources said along with India, many countries, including African Union members, have sought another revision of the text on industrial goods. Commerce & industry minister Kamal Nath, in a statement from Auckland, New Zealand, criticised the sharp increase in the number of square brackets in the text on industrial goods (indicating the number of points of differences) from 15 to 97. “This text would have to be completely revised and significant convergence achieved before taking the matter for deliberation at the ministerial level,” he said.

Earlier, at a discussion on WTO organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and CII, commerce secretary G K Pillai lashed out at the chair of the Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA or industrial goods) for buckling under pressure from the US pressure and bringing out with a text in favour of the rich countries. He said the game plan of the US has been just to see how much market access its get for its industrial goods in emerging market economies like India and China.

Though it was not in favour of walking out of the ongoing Doha Round negotiations at the WTO, India insisted that the new text on industrial goods must give special and differential treatment to all developing nations equally through flexibility to exempt certain tariff lines from formula cuts to protect their infant industries and SMEs. The present text offers special concessions on flexibility to Venezuela, South Africa and South America’s Mercosur bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. India said this was an attempt to break the unity of developing countries.

New Delhi said the new text should also include “Less Than Full Reciprocity in reduction commitments (LTFR)” which means that developed countries should commit to cutting their tariffs on industrial goods by a bigger margin than developing countries, unlike the present text implying greater tariff cuts for developing countries than the rich nations. Nath said the present text has ignored the core mandate of the Doha Round of LTFR in reduction commitments.