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PM to inaugurate two-day WTO conference

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will inaugurate a two-day international conference in New Delhi to deliberate on concerns of the developing nations, particularly India, in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) regime.

"The conference, being held from August 20-21, will be a prelude to the proposed WTO ministerial meeting at Doha later this year. Inputs of the conference will serve as a reference to the government and industry," Sunil Bhargava chairman of the Committee on Trade Laws and WTO, said.

The conference is being jointly organised by the commerce and industry ministry, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and ICAI, he said.

Spelling out focus areas of the conference, he said, "there are three gaps as far as WTO is concerned, namely lack of awareness on WTO issues, absence of formal education in WTO related laws and deliberations for seeking solutions."

"The conference will address these concerns and put the same in a legal framework," he said.

For the first time the competition policy would be discussed and the Law and Company Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley will speak on this issue.

Other topics to be taken up at the conference include issues before Doha, anti-dumping measures, anti-subsidy laws, and trade agreement in services as well as Intellectual Property Rights.

Nine other countries have confirmed their participation including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Belgium, Israel and Italy.

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