Secys finalise strategy for Mexico meet

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug 24: THE commerce ministry, under Murasoli Maran, seems to have won the day.

In a meeting of secretaries on Friday, commerce secretary Probir Sengupta, secured endorsement from key economic secretaries for his ministry’s “hard line” strategy at the forthcoming Mexico ministerial meeting on trade issues.

It is learnt that Mr Sengupta started out by briefly explaining the draft negotiating strategy for the meeting and the reasons for the hard line being espoused by his minister, vis-a-vis “pressure” being exercised by the developed nations, particularly the US.
However, since most economic secretaries present at the meeting did not persist with “parallel” or “conflicting” lines of thought, the commerce ministry’s line of thought was cleared “in virtually original form”.

The secretaries present also agreed for a review meeting after the Mexico ministerial meeting.

A combative Mr Maran has already made no secret of his views favouring a “no New Round” strategy.