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'We won several gold medals in Doha'

At the Doha ministerial, which was nothing short of an Olympics on global trade, Maran claimed India has bagged several 'golds' and a 'platinum' too.

In a chat with Sidhartha on Saturday, Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran said India won 'golds' on implementation, agriculture, pushing a case for extension of benefits of geographical indications, transfer of technology and successfully blocking launch of negotiations on investment, competition policy, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement.

What are India's gains from Doha?

When you are playing a game, like in the Olympics, you measure success by the gold, silver or bronze medals that you win. My gold medals are implementation issues -the unimplemented portion of the previous round.

The industrialised world first closed its eyes and did not lend us an ear. Later, it said this would call for reopening all old agreements and they couldn't do it. Now, they have come to realise that the problems are serious and they have to deal with them.

So, almost all of the issues were sent to the negotiating basket. Some of them were resolved, some still to be resolved but everything was there.

Regarding textiles, people said you didn't get anything. I am very sorry. In textiles, there are five tirets (issues). There were only two they did not agree to, and that too because we wanted to advance the growth-on-growth quota level from 1.1.2002 to 1.1.2000.

This basically means a further increase in quota lines. If we are not getting it now, it does not mean that it has been rejected.

It will now be examined by the council for trade in goods, which will furnish a report to the General Council by July 2002.

Not only that, when we are negotiating we want to use it as a bargaining chip. We have got the other three things.

And then, my second trophy is, probably not gold but a platinum one. It is what we achieved in the declaration of TRIPs and public health.

Now it has been accepted that national governments can import and manufacture (drugs) provided there is a case of national emergency or extreme urgency. Who will decide that? The national governments themselves. For what? For illustration, they have said AIDS, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, etc.

It is the efforts of India and Brazil, along with 55 African countries, which managed to achieve this. So, it's a platinum medal.

We also got a gold medal in agriculture. There are seven issues where we have managed to protect our interests in agriculture, services and industrial tariffs, and we have kept out negotiating issues that are harmful to India, such as labour.

We have got a work programme for transfer of technology-that is another gold medal. Also, geographical indications where we wanted the list to be expanded to include our mangoes, Darjeeling tea and Basmati rice. So, it's been referred to the TRIPs (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) council. In case of preventing bio-piracy and respecting traditional knowledge, these are all part of the work programme because of India's initiatives.

So these are all our gold medals - several of them. We have for the first time achieved something.

Is environment a loss for India?

In environment, we've lost nothing. It's a political gesture to the European Union. It does not mean we are giving up our rights. Three things had been taken up for negotiations.

One was reduction or determination of tariff or non-tariff barriers. We have been doing it. We have been giving tariff concessions and already they forms a part of industrial tariffs.

Then again, there is the procedure for regular exchange of information between the multilateral secretariat and WTO committees. It's nothing, it won't harm us.

An important thing is the relationship between existing WTO rules and specific trade obligations. The relationships will be gone into. What's the harm.

We are, for example, a signatory to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, which says you can't export fur, ivory, rhino horn, etc.

So, this will not affect us. Likewise, the Montreal Convention on chloro-fluoro carbon. This creates ozone holes. We are honouring it. We need not worry.

We have taken enormous steps. For example, special and differential treatment. The needs of developing nations will be taken care of. All these protections are built in.

Not only that, it won't apply to new multilateral agreements on environment. For example, if three-four people come to an understanding, it will not be applicable. That's why I say it's just a political gesture to the Europeans in order to get the benefits from agriculture.

We should not be over-sensitive regarding environment because all over the world there are NGOs. Already, we are using Euro II cars, buses have been asked to use CNG gas. The Supreme Court has even asked to purify the Yamuna within a specific period.

Why is India opposing negotiations on competition policy, investment, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement?

We want time. We are not prepared for it and so it was postponed. India single-handedly restored status quo of 1996.

What is 'explicit consensus'?

I myself don't know the difference between consensus and explicit consensus. Anyhow, if consensus is an ordinary bomb, explicit consensus is a nuclear bomb.

What are the gains from agriculture and benefits to Indian farmers?

The export subsidy of OECD countries are $361 billion, that is equivalent to the GDP of all the African countries. So they have to reduce and phase it out. Then only we can compete in the world. This is under the assumption that our agriculture and productivity will improve.

Secondly, our concerns are rural development and food security, which may lead to a 'development box'. Those concerns have been taken care of.

India's tariff levels continue to remain high? How do you think the country would benefit from negotiations?

Right from Manmohan Singh, every finance minister has said that our tariffs are high and we should reduce it. Recently, the present finance minister also stated that within three years, we would reduce the tariffs to the level of East Asian countries. What we are gaining is on peak tariff.

In the sense, in the United States, if you send an aircraft then it attracts zero duty. But who will export an aircraft to America? But if you export a pair of shoes, the tariff is high. Tariffs in Japan, on the import of rice I am told, range between 500 and 1,000 per cent. In individual cases, they take it upwards.

Then there is tariff escalation. What is tariff escalation? It is intended to make developing countries remain developing countries.

When you send raw leather, the duty would be less, processed leather will attract more tariff-a pair of shoes will have much more tariff. What's the idea? You should not prepare shoes but you send raw leather that is to make the developing countries remain as it is. So that is going to be addressed. This is to our advantage. That is also with our initiative.

What is the status on involvement of NGOs in the proposed review of dispute settlement undertaking?

That is to be negotiated.

What will be India's negotiation strategy?

That we will decide. We have just come back from Doha. It's not a one-shot affair. It's a long-drawn process. We have to be cautious and vigilant, if at all we want to be more competitive with China coming in. As the Prime Minister has stated, our GDP has to grow by 8 per cent or more.

Towards the end, India didn't have much support from developing countries.

They supported us. For various reasons, I can't say why, I can't find faults with them. Some left us, some stayed with us, but no one went to the extent of blocking us. India fought for its interest. These are all commensurate with the interests of the Indian industry, our business associations and agriculture.

What about partnerships with other countries?

It's an ongoing process. If interests converge, there will be issue-based support. All interested countries will join together on common issues.

Will India go in for more regional trade alliances?

Already we have some alliances like Saarc. We should strengthen and expand our RTAs.

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