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Indo-Canadian MP favours a broad WTO round

Ajit Jain, in Toronto

Indo-Canadian Member of Parliament, Deepak Obhrai, who will be part of the 66-member Canadian official delegation to the World Trade Organisation Ministerial meet at Doha, says he supports a broad WTO round.

"Canada and the world need the rules-based multilateral trading system provided by the WTO that guarantees access to foreign markets and provides a predictable and transparent international trading environment."

Obhrai said that since Canadian exports account for close to 46 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, trade liberalisation is obviously "essential for our quality of life."

"We also strongly believe that the launch of a new round is the best way to encourage broad based economic growth and poverty reduction in the developing world, and to deal effectively with the concerns that many developing countries have with current WTO rules and procedures," he said.

Obhrai noted, "the WTO has long had a role to play in advancing mutually supportive trade and environment policies, and the Official Opposition (Canadian Alliance) supports this objective, particularly with regard to supporting the role of the International Labor Organization and the Untied Nations Environment Program with respect to labour and sustainable development standards and any WTO negotiations.

"In addition, we strongly support the efforts to increase transparency and accountability in the WTO and increase efforts to include the Parliament and the Provinces in any WTO negotiations."

It has been pointed out that poor countries are no more willing to participate in a process that does not address their interests.

"No one wants to see the WTO stall in impotence so soon after its creation," argues the Globe and Mail in its lead article "The WTO's barriers threaten its survival. Countries all want changes in the system of trade, and the stagnation of recent years has hindered all their ambitions."

Obhrai has suggested that the Canadian government should "assist the very poor countries representing some 2 billion people to develop the capacity to integrate into the global economy.

He further wants his government to "ensure that intellectual property negotiations carefully balance various interests and recognise that some issues, such as access to medicines to respond to complex humanitarian crises such as the AIDS situation in Africa, obligate us to address these moral imperatives at Doha."

The Canadian official delegation is being led by the Minister for International Trade Pierre Pettigrew who says he is "cautiously optimistic" that a deal will be reached in Doha.

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