Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

India isolated at Doha meet: Opposition

The Opposition in Lok Sabha on Monday lashed out at the government accusing it of jeopardising the country's sovereignty at the WTO (World Trade Organisation) Ministerial Conference at Doha by 'succumbing' to pressures from powerful countries.

Participating in a discussion on the statement made by Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran on Doha meet, they claimed India was isolated at the Conference whose declaration 'thoroughly' ignored the concerns of developing countries.

Initiating the discussion, Rupchand Pal of CPI-M said except for a few 'apparent' gains, India succumbed to the pressures from powerful countries including the United States, which pushed through a new agenda at the WTO meeting.

Terming as wrong Maran's claim of major gains at Doha, he said an analysis of the draft and final declaration shows that the outcome was a great setback for India and other developing countries and the government succumbed to pressures.

While no major implementation issue was taken even for consideration, on the so-called Singapore issues too it was a failure, putting country's sovereignty at stake, he said.

M A K Swain (Bharatiya Janata Party) said India made substantial gains in agriculture and public health at Doha but sought change in the style of negotiations to garner others' support. He favoured a multi-disciplinary team including experts for evolving strategy instead of relying on bureaucrats alone.

Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress) said Maran, who had earlier described the draft declaration as "neither fair nor just", now claims that India made major strides towards realising its goals and that the declaration contains significant achievements for the country.

Aiyar charged Maran with misleading the people by making false claims regarding the Doha declaration and said the document fails to reflect India's concerns and demands in a substantive manner.

Out of the 45 paragraphs in the draft, as many as 37 have been retained in the final declaration and only eight have been amended and seven new paragraphs added, he said, adding more than half of the amended paragraphs were against India's interests.

He said of the 38 drafting suggestions made by India, 36 were 'unceremoniously' rejected and none was fully accepted.

The commerce minister's statement altogether skipped any reference to textiles and clothing, he said, adding though Maran had expressed concern that sensitive industries sustaining large labour force were being destroyed, nothing happened at Doha to stem this destruction.

On TRIPS and public health, he said while WHO has long recognised that medicines must be 'affordable', WTO refused to go beyond the expression 'reasonable'.

U Venkateswarlu (Telegu Desam Party) said the government did its best to strike the best possible deal at Doha.

He wanted a Joint Parliamentary Committee to be set up to advice the government on issues that are taken up at WTO.

Ramjilal Suman (Samajwadi), P H Pandian (AIADMK) and Prabodh Pande (CPI) were critical of the government's stand at WTO.

Bikram Sarkar (Trinamool), Ramakrishna Kusumaria (BJP) and Devendra Prasad Yadav (JD-U) appreciated the stand taken by the government at Doha and said the country had not succumbed to pressures of the developed nations.

ALSO READ:
India and the WTO: News and issues