BOTTOMLINE: The FICCI-CII bottomline on Doha ministerial meet

WTO: From no-not-now to give-n-take

Our Economic Bureau

The heat is on in early winter. Commerce minister Murasoli Maran and his trade policy team are working overtime at New Delhi’s Udyog Bhavan to fine tune India’s negotiating strategy for the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation, scheduled to begin on November 9. Having stuck to its “No, not now and implementation first” argument, India is not expected to signal a dramatic shift in policy at the eleventh hour.

Murasoli Maran

However, in the run-up to the Doha ministerial the government was advised to keep a “fall back” option ready and proposals for a “give and take” approach. If this line of reasoning, explicitly stated in a strategy paper submitted to the Prime Minister’s trade and industry advisory council resurfaces, Mr Maran may yet use his five minutes of speaking time at Doha to signal a thaw in his hardline.

Having travelled to Seattle for the third ministerial with a “give-and-take” approach and witnessed the cynical scuttling of the Seattle meeting by United States President Bill Clinton and the hardline tactics adopted by the European Union, Mr Maran may have well returned to change tack in the run up to Doha.

If domestic politics mattered more for Mr Clinton than world trade, why can not the National Democratic Alliance government take such a stance?

However, even as Mr Maran pursued this hardline strategy, which has been widely endorsed by all the NDA constituents as well as by all major political parties at home, the representatives of the Indian corporate sector have suggested a more nuanced strategy. The Financial Express has secured a copy of the strategy paper presented to the Prime Minister by Ficci and CII. The paper was written by industrialist N Srinivasan on behalf of Ficci and by Rahul Bajaj on behalf of CII.

“We must be pro-active, not reactive, have an agenda of our own and canvas support for it among all WTO member countries” says the Ficci-CII paper. “On every issue where our interests are hurt, we must have a negotiating brief with a hard line and a fall back option......We must approach these negotiations in a spirit of “give and take”. The paper endorses the “implementation first” approach of Mr Maran. “A systematic review of the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements is imperative” it says. However, it also outlines a negotiating agenda of give and take. This approach keeps the door open for India to remain active and relevant at Doha. It might well shape thinking at Udyog Bhavan as Mr Maran prepares to pack his bags.

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WTO: Why all the fuss over the Doha Ministerial?
FICCI-CII perspective on WTO strategy