At the moment, the US which is in favour of a smaller agenda seems opposed to bringing these issues for negotiations, though the EU is trying to evolve a strategy in association with the former. "Will this succeed?", asks NN Khanna, special secretary in the commerce ministry dealing with WTO matters, indicating that India is keeping its fingers crossed on this issue.

From India's point of view these two key issues should be pushed to the background. If it comes about, it will be a welcome development as the agenda will get thinned down.

On labour, the US andEU are divided. The US wants only a working group on the subject to be set up, while the EU demands a full scale discussion with the WTO and ILO members participating in it. Against this background, what India is pushing for is a "balanced" agenda. "At Marrakesh, we had a balanced agenda and there is no need to change this", says Khanna.

India's main concern relates to the implementation of Uruguay Round agreements which have not so far resulted in appreciable benefits to it and other developing countries. This issue must be addressed upfront and asymmetries/imbalances in them removed, demanded commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran when he had an informal pre-Seattle meet of 23 key WTO members in Lausanne (Switzerland) recently. At the meeting, Maran also set his face firmly against the inclusion of labour, investment and competition policy in the new round.

Discussions also revealed that India would find it difficult to evolve a political consensus of even some of the trade-related issues unlessdeveloped countries demonstrated that some of the inequities in the existing Uruguay Round agreements would be dealt with at the Seattle Round.

A glaring example of such inequities could be discernible in the way of the agreements on textiles and clothing is being implemented. The agreement signed in 1995 under the WTO auspices seek to integrate the entire international trade in textiles and clothing in a phased manner by the year 2004.

But, "it has been implemented in letter and not in spirit", opines Khanna and asks how the integration can come about in a purposeful and meaningful way. For instance, 51 per cent of the integration is proposed to be completed on the last day of the expiry of the agreement that is on December 31, 2004. This means that the remaining 51 per cent of the integration is to take place in the first nine years of the agreement.

"Was the agreement written in stone and was it written in Marrakessh in the same kind of stone", asks Khanna.

India, according to Maran, will only haveissued-based alliances, be they with developed or developing countries.

During his Lausanne visit, the Singapore trade minister, Yeo, expressed himself in favour a "balanced" agenda for the Seattle conference, while the South African minister, shared India's concern on implementational issues being addressed upfront.