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India, Japan urge WTO to act against poverty

Admitting that globalisation benefits have spread unevenly, India and Japan on Monday said World Trade Organisation's trade negotiations should aim at improving market access to carry forward "war against poverty" and reducing income gaps between north and south.

Expressing their resolve to co-operate towards this end to ensure people from all countries reap the benefits of globalisation in an equitable manner, the two countries shared their strong commitment for an open and non-discriminatory rule-based multilateral trading system.

In a joint declaration Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi, "reaffirmed that such trade negotiations should aim to further improve market access, clarify and improve WTO rules and disciplines and respond to the interests and concerns of all WTO members including that of the developing countries".

The two leaders stressed the importance of a war against poverty and tackling the issue of income gaps between the developed and the developing world to sustain public support for globalisation.

Terming global environment problems, including protection of the global climate system as one of the biggest challenges facing human kind, the two sides welcomed the agreement reached on rules, procedures and modalities to implement the Kyoto protocol.

To this end, both leaders agreed that the World summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg in September 2002 would provide an opportunity to look at environmental issues in a comprehensive way.

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