Unwilling To Go, Jaitley Wants To Send Communique To WTO Meet

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New Delhi, April 28: Unwilling to leave the country when the general elections are in full swing, commerce minister Arun Jaitley wants to send a written communication stating India’s viewpoint to the mini-ministerial meeting of six World Trade Organisation (WTO) members. The meeting has been called by United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick in London on Friday.

Speaking to FE, Mr Jaitley said that he would speak to the USTR explaining his inability to attend the meet because of the on-going Lok Sabha elections. He will also urge his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim to incorporate India’s views while communicating the position of the G-20 alliance of developing countries at the meet. A final decision on his going to London, however, will be taken by Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday.

Earlier, the commerce minister had suggested that disinvestment & telecom minister Arun Shourie should attend the meet in his place. With Mr Shourie’s refusal to take up the offer, the PM will now have to decide on either sending Mr Jaitley or giving the meeting a miss.

India and Brazil are the main negotiators for the G-20 alliance in agriculture which includes other important members like China, Argentina, South Africa and Egypt. The alliance was formed before the fifth WTO ministerial meet at Cancun, Mexico, in response to the coming together of the EU and the US to push forward a common agenda at the WTO.

The informal mini-ministerial called by Mr Zoellick is expected to focus on agriculture as very little has happened in the two meetings of the committee on agriculture (CoA) which took place after the inconclusive Cancun meeting. The countries invited to the meet include India, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya and the EU.

The US is keen on having a rough framework for negotiations in agriculture and non-agriculture commodities in place by July this year. This is because it will not be in a position to negotiate actively later as the country would be busy preparing for the presidential elections in November this year.