Suresh Prabhu lobbies with 53 nations on free trade

New Delhi: Union commerce minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said that the mini-ministerial WTO meeting, which saw participation from 53 countries, was an exercise to create confidence and bring countries together to discuss common issues amid threat of growing protectionism in global trade.

Mr Prabhu also said a senior Chinese trade minister will be coming to India next week to hold talks over the huge trade deficit.

Meanwhile, WTO DG Roberto Azevedo said that during the meeting countries expressed concern that US’ decision to hike tariffs could lead to escalation with other countries retaliating back.

The informal WTO meeting, which saw participation from both US and China, was called by India after talks had collapsed at the December ministerial conference in Buenos Aires as US backtracked on its commitment to discuss agricultural issues, which is India’s key area of interest.

The conference was also attended by a representative of the Pakistan High Commission in India.

“We never expected any outcome nor we were working for it. But the idea was meeting of minds which certainly has happened,” Mr Prabhu said after the two-day meeting concluded.

Mr Prabhu pointed out that the WTO is a long drawn process and any decision is taken during the ministerial meeting. However, he said that in between what was important is to build confidence, bring countries together and to make each other understand why “we are saying a particular issue”. “This definitively has been achieved in this meeting,” he said.

Mr Prabhu said free and frank discussion happened and each country put forward their view point.

The minister also said that the overwhelming feeling was that though countries have their differences, they need to find a way.  “WTO has become even more important considering the recent trends that we have been facing in which countries are trying to unilaterally take steps which in long term will harm everybody. Therefore we must ensure that we keep global trade growing which helps everybody especially the developing countries like India,” said the minister.

The appointment of members to the appellate body of WTO, Doha Development Agenda, subsidy on fisheries, e-commerce, investment facilitation and gender issues were discussed.  

Besides, WTO members also deliberated on food security and special treatment for developing nations during the meeting.

WTO DG Mr Azevedo said that New Delhi was the first opportunity to have a conversation at the political level after Buenos Aires and all the members have realised the seriousness of the situation and have recognised that solutions will have to be worked out by collective effort.

He added that there are concerns that US’ move to hike tariffs has real potential for escalation due to possible retaliation from other trading partners with trade restrictive measures as well. “This is something we must avoid. That is something we heard today,” said Mr Azevedo.  He said that during the meeting countries said that “we have to proceed very carefully and try to work within the framework of WTO”.

On USA dumping the WTO, Mr Azevedo said “I have not heard US saying that it doesn’t want the system or is walking out of the system. I didn’t hear it at all at any point of the time. What I hear is that US said that the system is important.”