India reluctant, won’t host G-33 summit

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New Delhi, Mar 5: The two-day G-33 summit will now take place in Jakarta, Indonesia from March 20. According to commerce ministry sources, India, being a major leader of developing nations, was offered the opportunity to host the G-33 summit this time but the country was reluctant.

G-33 is a major grouping of about 40 countries, representing both the developing and the least developed world. India is also a member of this group. G-33 has defensive interests in the World Trade Organisation agriculture negotiations, particularly in relation to the designation of Special Products (SPs) and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).

India is also a leading partner in the G-20 group of developing countries, including Brazil, China and South Africa. The country had hosted the first summit of G-20 countries two years ago in Delhi.

A senior official in the commerce ministry confirmed that G-33 meeting would be held in Jakarta, but refused to go on record as to why India was reluctant to host the summit. He said, “The matter was discussed with the agriculture ministry.”

With bilateral and group discussions over a month showing some signs of improvement for breaking the deadlock in WTO negotiations, G-33 meeting is slated to discuss the possibilities of strengthening their unified approach to the farm negotiations.

Commerce minister Kamal Nath at the sidelines of the recent World Economic Summit at Davos had offered to be flexible on the issues of SPs and SSM. He also suggested that the developed countries improve their offer for a reduction in farm subsidies and tariffs.