attempts to expand H-1B at Doha Round is collapsing
attempts to expand H-1B at Doha Round is collapsing
Date: Monday, July 28, 2008 9:09 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1896 -- 7/28/2008 >>>>>
The Doha Round of trade talks has been ongoing since 2001. During every
meeting since 2001 India and a few other countries have been pushing the U.S.
to increase H-1B and to allow other types of guest worker visas. Trade
representatives from the U.S. have no problem giving the world more H-1Bs, and
it seems that in this recent ministerial meeting the U.S. is signaling they
are more willing than ever to strike a deal:
"When it comes to temporary entry of business professionals
we signalled that we are ready to have that conversation in
the context of the Doha round," U.S. Trade Representative
Susan Schwab told reporters.
Susan Schwab is eager to use our technology jobs as a bargaining chip, but
surpringly India isn't buying the deal. As proposed by the U.S. we will give
away our technology jobs if India will allow our agri-businesses to export
rice, wheat, and other farm products duty free. Indian farmers refuse to go
along with the deal because they argue that our agri-businesses are government
subsidized. They are worried about their jobs!
I believe there are far deeper problems hindering India's attempts to win an
H-1B increase -- Congress took away the Bush administration's unconstitutional
power to make backroom trade deals when they refused to extend Bush's Trade
Promotion Authority (TPA), which used to be called "fast track". Unfortunately
for Schwab, her boss has only four more months in office, and whatever time is
left in Congress will be dominated by elections. Democrats probably won't be
too anxious to give Bush the glory of passing new trade bills so Congress will
choose to do nothing. Free trade is too much of a hot potato for incumbents to
support.
Foreign countries like India know that U.S. trade representatives are holding
a lousy deck of cards, and that makes India very reluctant to agree to things,
like expanded H-1B limits, that Bush can't produce.
India is playing other games to get more visas for their expanding population
of educated professionals; like for instance trying to pit the U.S. against
the European Union (EU). India's ploy is to put pressure on the EU to push
through a European version of H-1B called the "Blue Card".
India has fostered the argument on both sides that there will be a brain drain
of H-1Bs leaving the U.S. for Europe, and of course conversely they argue that
Europe stands to lose their talented immigrants to the U.S. if the H-1B cap is
increased. India's message is being heard by trade representatives from both
sides of the Atlantic:
In another area of contention, Mr Mandelson [European
Trade Commissioner] said the EU would offer 80,000
temporary visas a year for working in the
services sector.
And US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the US would
extend the number of sectors open to foreign workers.
So far, India's game of fostering one-upsmanship between the U.S. and the EU
isn't working. That's because despite the efforts of EU's most rabid
globalists, the Blue Card isn't close to being ratified by all the members of
the EU. Europe's labor unions are very well aware of the economic catastrophe
that H-1B has caused in the U.S. and they aren't about to let it happen in
their own countries.
Read my article called the "Blue Card Scare" to get an idea why the Blue Card
is on shaky grounds:
http://www.capsweb.org/content.php?id=218&menu_id=8&menu_item_id=64
It appears that the future of your engineering or computer/IT jobs may be
dependant on the intransigence of third-world farmers. Unlike American
techies, who have no clout and are too feeble and disorganized to affect
policy, farmers who use water buffalos to plow their fields have managed to
stop the corporate globalists dead in their tracks. Nothing works better to
convince politicans on economic issue than pitchforks!
IMPORTANT NOTE: It's very important to understand the terminology of the WTO
when reading these articles. When they speak "services" in this context it
refers to the somewhat esoteric term "natural person", which is defined by the
WTO and GATS in Mode 4 - the "Movement of natural persons". Mode 4 covers all
international workers -- especially those that use visas such as H-1B, L-1,
TN, and J-1. So, just replace the term "services" with "guest worker" and/or
"immigrant labor" and you won't be fooled.
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/mouvement_persons_e/mouvement_persons_e.htm
Movement of natural persons refers to the entry
and temporary stay of persons for the purpose of
providing a service. It does not relate to persons
seeking citizenship, permanent employment or permanent
residence in a country.
Now that you understand what "services" really means, read this statement by
India's Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath:
"Our demands are not regarding immigration, but domestic
regulations in countries of our interest create problem in
movement of out professionals. Our interest lies in sectors
like health, research and development, engineering,
constructions as well as computers."
Materials Included
http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/0/9114F7DB619E6E45652574920040DA2E?OpenDocument
Amid renewed hopes of a breakthrough, the WTO has extended the ministerial
meeting till next week to allow negotiators more time to narrow differences
and reach a deal for opening the world trade.
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-34693320080727
U.S. ready to talk about temporary visas at WTO
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Policy/With_US_election_on_cards_Doha_talks_could_be_an_exercise_in_futility/articleshow/3261763.cms
With US election on cards, Doha talks could be an exercise in futility
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7527367.stm
Concerns over proposed trade deal
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINL3104845220080723
US mulling WTO offer on key India services demand
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/21/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired July 21, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2f24b4fe-c0a9-4e2b-8dd7-5441f80bb1e1
World trade talks stall, atmosphere tense
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=328936
India keeps option to walk out of Doha talks open
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/0/9114F7DB619E6E45652574920040DA2E?OpenDocument
Yoshita Singh
Geneva, Jul 26 (PTI) Amid renewed hopes of a breakthrough, the WTO has
extended the ministerial meeting till next week to allow negotiators more time
to narrow differences and reach a deal for opening the world trade.
The Ministerial Meeting of 30 trade ministers from member countries that began
on July 21 was to end today. While the countries stuck to their hard stance
bringing talks to the brink of collapse, hopes of a revival sprung up on the
back of "some interesting ideas" yesterday.
"The talks have not collapsed. All ministers have agreed to be here,"
Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai told PTI.
Pillai said while broad issues in agriculture and Non-Agriculture Market
Access have been discussed, areas like cotton, preference erosion and tariff
simplification have not yet not been touched.
"We have only finished part of the issues." he said. The meeting may continue
till middle of next week.
With not much headway in the agriculture and NAMA talks, the services
conference was postponed a couple of times.
"The fact that the services conference is taking place suggests there is some
movement in the sticky areas of agriculture and industrial goods," an industry
official said. PTI
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-34693320080727
U.S. ready to talk about temporary visas at WTO
Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:39am IST
By William Schomberg and Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States, responding to a key demand of developing
countries, said on Saturday it would discuss giving more temporary access to
foreign professionals, injecting renewed optimism into world trade talks.
The U.S. offer -- its second this week in make-or-break talks to secure a
breakthrough in long-running trade negotiations -- had ministers and
businessmen talking optimistically about improved prospects for a deal.
"When it comes to temporary entry of business professionals we signalled that
we are ready to have that conversation in the context of the Doha round," U.S.
Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters.
"But obviously it has to be in conjunction with our consultations with
Congress," she said after a session on services at the World Trade
Organisation (WTO).
The issue of granting temporary business visas to skilled foreign workers is
controversial as many politicians consider it an immigration issue that should
not be included in trade pacts.
But Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who earlier in the week was blamed by
many ministers for blocking the talks, welcomed the U.S. move and showed
understanding for the needs of U.S. negotiators to coordinate with the U.S.
Congress.
CONSTRUCTIVE SIGNS
"These are constructive signs," Nath told reporters. "There is good movement
by the United States and by the EU."
Services such as banking, shipping and telecoms account for upwards of 75
percent of rich economies and a majority and growing share of many developing
country GDPs.
But they still account for less than 20 percent of world trade. So rich
nations with their sophisticated financial sectors and developing countries
with their youthful educated populations believe the biggest gains from a
trade deal could come in services.
So Saturday's meeting in which around 30 WTO players made broad offers on
opening up their service sectors will colour the negotiations on the core
issues of this week's talks -- farming and industrial goods.
"The signals that were sent were magnificent," said Mexico's ambassador to the
WTO, Fernando de Mateo y Venturini, who chairs the services talks.
"I think in services things are moving fast. This is a very nice indication
that things might move as well in the other sectors," he told reporters.
Schwab said she would have liked to have seen more on the table on financial
services, a U.S. priority, but said the meeting was a "good step".
And the main U.S. services lobby, which had been complaining for years about
the neglect of services in the WTO talks, said Saturday's meeting had injected
a "whole new dynamic".
"It's a milestone," Bob Vastine, president of the Coalition of Service
Industries, told Reuters. "We've never seen as much progress in services."
The upbeat outcome of the services talks followed a sudden turnaround on
Friday in the WTO talks, when predictions of their imminent collapse
evaporated after seven key players drafted a compromise on the main industry
and farming issues dividing rich and poor countries and importers and
exporters.
Earlier on Saturday Europe's trade negotiators won backing from most EU
countries to press on with the Doha negotiations, but France, Italy and some
others expressed concern about how the talks were shaping up.
The Doha negotiations for a global trade deal were launched in 2001 to boost
the world economy and help fight poverty.
"There are still potential potholes in the road ... But we are closer to a
deal than we have been at any point in the last seven years," European Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson told reporters on the sixth day of intensive
talks.
Without a breakthrough now, the talks risk being frozen for a further year or
two while the United States and the European Commission change administrations
and India holds elections.
Tough negotiations on questions such as special treatment for developing
country farmers and limits on the ability of poor countries to shield entire
industrial sectors from opening lie ahead before a deal can be closed.
And even if the core issues in agriculture and industry are resolved,
festering disputes about cotton subsidies, the protection of place names
linked with products, and bananas still threaten to derail the talks.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Policy/With_US_election_on_cards_Doha_talks_could_be_an_exercise_in_futility/articleshow/3261763.cms
With US election on cards, Doha talks could be an exercise in futility
22 Jul, 2008, 0313 hrs IST,Sheila Mathrani, ET Bureau
GENEVA: Why are member states of the WTO still negotiating the Doha Round,
particularly in agriculture despite being aware that the current US
administration does not have the authority or the power to ratify the promises
it makes in the any issues, especially non-agricultural market access (Nama)
and agriculture? As the US civil society Public Citizen s Global Trade Watch
(PCGTW) writes: "The political and legal reality is that the US will only be
in a position to engage honestly in Doha Round talks after the new president
arrives."
The Bush administration does not have authority any more to bind the US on any
trade negotiations after the fast track authority expired last July.
Why do trade ministers and governments fighting for gains in the Doha Round
continue with the farce of negotiating in Geneva from July 21st? One can
presume that the WTO director-general , a free trader by conviction and
background, wants a deal sealed up, and will try all avenues to see that it is
completed while member states may not have the courage to challenge the US as
to whether it legally has the authority to negotiate since President Bush s
term will soon be over.
US trade representative Susan Schwab has just announced in Washington that the
US will be making sharp cuts in negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda at
the WTO mini-ministerial starting on July 21st. "We have already signalled our
willingness to put an enormous amount of market opening and subsidy discipline
on the table in the context of an agreement," Schwab said in a speech to the
Washington International Trade Association. "The question now is whether
"developing countries will reciprocate."
However, the Republican US administration has only four more months in office,
whereas the Congress is dominated by Democrats and without its consent no
trade deal can be ratified.
PCGTW cites a US Congressional research service interpretation of the US
Public Law 103-465 as saying: "WTO agreements and adopted WTO rulings in
conflict with federal law do not have any domestic legal effect unless or
until the Congress or the executive branch, as the case may be, takes action
to modify or remove the statute, regulation or regulatory practice at issue."
And as PCGTW s Lori Wallach points out, there is zero chance that Bush s
administration will get fast track authority from the Congress for its
leadership has explicitly stated in writing that it will not support further
fast track for Bush.
The US Congress has less than 20 working days as it adjourns on September 26,
after which business will resume in January and there will be a new president.
Congressional leaders have repeatedly stated that there will be no post
election "lame duck" session. Therefore, the commitments made by the current
US administration cannot be depended upon. Bush knows that it is not him but
the next president who will have the responsibility of ensuring that such a
deal can be passed by the Congress.
It is certain that once countries which make concessions now to the current
Bush administration will face additional or different demands from a new
president, to ensure that a deal will be passed by the US Congress.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7527367.stm
Concerns over proposed trade deal
Some European Union countries have expressed concerns over proposed
concessions made by trade negotiator Peter Mandelson at talks in Geneva.
The discussions are trying to save the Doha round of talks, begun in 2001,
intended to liberalise world trade.
But senior politicians from Italy, France and Ireland are worried about moves
which would force them to cut subsidies to their farmers.
Mr Mandelson insisted that the emerging deal could not be undone.
The talks are due to continue until Wednesday.
But the fear is that even if a deal finally emerges, it won't be in keeping
with Doha's original purpose - a trade agreement that will genuinely boost
economies in the developing world, reports the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
An 'emerging' deal
After four days of deadlock, a compromise emerged on Friday, which is now
being reviewed by ministers from some 35 countries.
Everybody there was speaking about services and trying to be as positive as
each one can be Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim
The proposed settlement, brokered by Pascal Lamy, the head of the World
Trade Organization, calls for cutting limits of European farm subsidies by
80% and US payments by 70% to about $14.5bn.
However, this would not mean the US would have to cut its actual spending
on support to farmers, which totalled about $9bn last year.
The compromise proposal also involves cuts in tariffs on agricultural
imports and on industrial goods.
In another area of contention, Mr Mandelson said the EU would offer 80,000
temporary visas a year for working in the services sector.
And US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the US would extend the
number of sectors open to foreign workers.
Such moves were welcomed by developing countries, such as India.
"These are constructive signs," said Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
"There is good movement by the United States and EU... the process of
engagement is continuing."
And Brazil's foreign minister said there had been a "good atmosphere".
"Everybody there was speaking about services and trying to be as positive
as each one can be without any attempt to spoil the game," said Celso
Amorim.
Caution in Europe
But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he and French President
Nicolas Sarkozy had "deep concern" about the plan.
Following a telephone discussion, the two leaders stressed "the absolute
necessity for Europe of a positive and balanced result which offers
European citizens benefits in regard to the sacrifices" which might be
required.
"We have a couple of issues and one, of course, is agriculture," said Irish
Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan.
"And we don't see the balance in Nama (non-agricultural market access)."
But European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: "A huge
majority of member states supported the Commission... on the basis of the
paper on the table, to continue negotiations."
And Mr Mandelson stressed again that the core principles of the proposed
deal must stand and said he was "moderately encouraged" by the talks on
Saturday.
"I heard some interesting signals from India, [a] couple of things from
China, one in particular that I want to specify, to follow up," he added.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINL3104845220080723
UPDATE 1-US mulling WTO offer on key India services demand
Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:22am IST
(Adds services meeting at end)
By Doug Palmer
GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United States is prepared for the first
time in world trade talks to discuss allowing more service professionals
from India and other developing countries to work there, a U.S. industry
official said.
U.S. trade officials were given permission to discuss the visa issue this
week after months of consultation with White House national security
officials and key members of Congress, Coalition of Service Industries
president Bob Vastine said.
"Whether they are in position to make an offer or even signal a specific
kind of offer, I don't know. It may partly depend on the dynamic of the
meeting," he told reporters on the fringes of a trade ministers meeting
trying to reach a breakthrough in the nearly 7-year-old Doha round.
The Doha talks aim to open markets for farm, manufactured goods and
services around the world but have struggled to overcome differences
between rich and developing nations and they risk being put on hold for a
couple of years unless a breakthrough is reached soon.
The issue of granting more temporary-entry visas for information technology
engineers and other professionals from poor countries has been
controversial in the U.S. Congress since the Bush administration did so
several years ago in free trade pacts with Singapore and Chile.
Many lawmakers objected to inclusion of what they said were "immigration"
provisions in a trade agreement.
The new move addresses a key demand of developing countries as the United
States tries to persuade India and others to open their markets in sectors
like financial services, distribution, telecommunications and
computer-related services.
The EU is expected to make an improved offer to open its market to foreign
professionals on Friday, when discussions in Geneva are scheduled to turn
to services after several days of negotiations on agriculture and
manufacturing.
"They're (the EU) probably not going to give the final figure because
that's probably going to be the last thing they give in the negotiations in
this round," said Pascal Kerneis, managing director of the European
Services Forum.
WAIT AND SEE
Although India has made "very good offers" to open its market in areas such
as telecommunications, distribution, computer-related services and energy
services, it has not done so in financial services, Vastine said.
Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told a news conference India needed to
see what the United States and the EU were prepared to do on the visa issue
before he could make his offer on financial services.
"Let me make it clear India has no demand on immigration," Nath added,
saying New Delhi only wanted to make sure burdensome rules do not block
Indian professionals from performing contract work in the United States and
the EU.
At the same time, he said the outcome of services negotiations would be
critical in India's assessment of proposed deals on agriculture and
manufacturing.
The services talks suffered a setback on Wednesday, however, when Bolivia,
Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela blocked adoption of a report laying out the
future path for the negotiations, a participant in the meeting said.
The four Latin American countries argue that a separate formal negotiating
document on services is not needed.
The WTO's mediator on services, Mexican ambassador Fernando de Mateo y
Venturini, had submitted a draft to the meeting which called on members to
submit revised offers on services by Oct. 15 and final commitments by Dec.
1.
Mateo will now report to the final session of this week's meeting of
ministers, which may still decide to adopt dates for new services offers.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Lynn) (Editing by Giles Elgood)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/21/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired July 21, 2008 - 19:00 ET
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Trade agreements and
immigration policy wouldn't seem to have much in common. But workers and
jobs are apparently becoming just commodities to be traded. The latest
round of trade within the World Trade Organization known as the Doha (ph)
Round, India is pressing the United States to create a new guest worker
visa for highly skilled workers, effectively skirting the cap on the H-1B
Visa.
It is a demand that relatively few people outside of trade negotiators are
aware of and one expert in outsourcing is horrified.
RON HIRA, ROCHESTER INST. OF TECHNOLOGY: I just find it amazing and
unbelieveable that -- that we have this opaque and un-Democratic process
set up. TUCKER (voice over): U.S. trade negotiators refused to discuss the
details of any negotiations at this point. If a new type of visa were
created, it wouldn't be the first created by a trade agreement. In 1994,
the North American Free Trade Agreement created the T-N (ph) visa, allowing
workers from Canada and Mexico to work in the United States indefinitely.
And in virtually every trade agreement since, there has been a provision
allowing guest workers into the United States under what's known as trade
and services. According to one group that lobbies for a more restricted
immigration policy, such provisions benefit foreign companies that provide
outsourcing services.
JESSICA VAUGHAN, CTR. FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: We're giving concessions to
companies, so that they can establish a trade foothold in the United
States. not to hire Americans and benefit our economy, but to bring in
workers from abroad
TUCKER: Sixty-eight hundred guest worker visas were part of the free trade
agreement with Singapore and Chile.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER (on camera): But those visas never made it into the final trade
agreement (INAUDIBLE) because of a number of senators who were angry at the
visas being included in the trade agreement, prompting a warning from
several senators, Lou, against the inclusion of high skilled visas in trade
agreements in the future.
DOBBS: They need to take the Doha Round and square it off.
TUCKER: Yes.
DOBBS: All right. Thank you very much. Bill Tucker
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2f24b4fe-c0a9-4e2b-8dd7-5441f80bb1e1
World trade talks stall, atmosphere tense
William Schomberg and Jonathan Lynn, Reuters
Published: Monday, July 28, 2008
GENEVA (Reuters) - Progress towards a global trade deal ground to a halt on
Monday as the United States clashed with China and India over access to
their rapidly growing markets and key European Union states demanded better
terms.
"The situation is very tense. Things are finely balanced and the outcome is
by no means certain," World Trade Organisation spokesman Keith Rockwell
told reporters, as key WTO ministers resumed talks shortly after midnight.
Negotiators battled over a "special safeguard mechanism" intended to help
poor countries protect their farmers against import surges, with
agricultural exporters like Costa Rica, Paraguay and Uruguay pitted against
other developing countries.
The row about the safeguard blocked all other discussions on Monday,
preventing the WTO from issuing new negotiating texts to serve as the
blueprint for a deal.
"We are very much concerned about the direction that a couple of countries
are taking," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said during a break on
the eighth day of World Trade Organisation talks.
"I am very concerned it will jeopardize the outcome of this round," she
told reporters.
Her comments reflected strong differences over U.S. demands for major
developing countries to agree to deep tariff cuts in at least some
manufacturing sectors and China and India's insistence that developing
countries be given a strong new tool to guard against agricultural import
surges.
China's WTO ambassador Sun Zhenyu said the United States was refusing to
budge on the safeguard, which he said developing countries needed to
protect their subsistence farmers. But major WTO players were continuing to
try to resolve the disagreement.
"Maybe not tonight, but they're not giving up efforts," Sun told reporters.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy shared
concerns about the talks in a phone call on Monday, a spokesman for Sarkozy
said, while France, Italy and seven other EU members formed an alliance to
push EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to hold out for better terms.
"There is a real risk that this deal will not be accepted by the European
countries if the concerns of all European countries are not addressed,"
Sarkozy's spokesman said.
MARATHON TALKS
Top trade officials from around 30 key WTO members have been in Geneva
since last Monday to try to agree on terms for cutting farm subsidies and
tariffs on agricultural and manufactured goods. After a rough start, the
talks appeared to be making progress just as problems resurfaced again.
India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters India had never agreed
to a compromise crafted last week by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, but
had continued talks in the hope of winning further concessions from
developed countries.
"I'm still hoping we will see some movement. I'm still optimistic," Nath
told reporters after meeting ministers from seven key WTO players.
Priorities include deeper reductions in allowed spending on developed
country farm subsidies than the proposed 70 percent cut for the United
States and 80 percent cut for the EU in the current package, he said.
Poor countries also need a better special safeguard mechanism to help ward
off import surges or price collapses in farm products, Nath said.
But developing country food exporters say the mechanism as now proposed
would shut them out of other developing country markets, depriving them of
their best prospects for growth.
In some cases, by allowing countries to hike tariffs over current levels,
regardless of any cuts agreed in the Doha round, it could leave them worse
off than today's level agreed in the 1994 world trade deal.
"My country will not accept that remedies will go back to a pre-Uruguay
round state," Uruguay's ambassador to the WTO, Guillermo Valles Galmes
said.
The United States, under pressure to cut its farm subsidies and tariffs in
core markets such as autos and clothing, insists developing countries make
significant openings in return.
In manufacturing, it wants China, India and others to agree to voluntary
"sectoral" negotiations, in which a critical mass of countries would agree
to cut tariffs to as close to zero as possible for industries ranging from
jewelry to chemicals.
China and India object to a compromise provision which encourages countries
to take part in at least two sectoral talks by allowing them lower cuts in
other industrial tariffs.
(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer, Laura MacInnis and Robin Pomeroy;
editing by Alison Williams and Richard Meares)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=328936
India keeps option to walk out of Doha talks open
BS Reporter / New Delhi July 17, 2008, 0:25 IST
India today said it did not rule out an option to walk out of the Doha
Round of World Trade Organization talks, if its sensitivities in areas like
agriculture, non-agricultural market access (Nama) and services are not
taken care of.
Senior trade ministers from 30 countries are meeting in Geneva from July 21
to 26 to discuss a deal on agriculture as well as Nama.
Speaking to reporters today, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said: "There will
be no deal if we do not get what we want. Coalitions like G-20 or the
Nama-11 are intact. We have full option to walk out," Nath said.
He is scheduled to meet trade ministers from the US, EU, China and Brazil
on July 19, after which he will fly down to India the next day. He will
join the Indian mini-ministerial meeting only on July 23, as the UPA
government is seeking a trust vote in Parliament on July 22.
Apart for issues in Nama and agriculture, India wants to have market access
in services sector markets globally. A signaling conference on services has
been scheduled in Geneva, at the sidelines of the mini-ministerial meeting.
"Unless there are binding commitments in services, there would be no Doha
deal," said Nath.
According to experts, services is the only sector, where India has
offensive interests. This is because the Indian services sector has
international competitive advantage and accounts for 55 per cent of the
gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation. Moreover, it employs 142,000
people and accounts for 30 per cent of total exports from India. According
to Nath, the sector accounted for $ 86 billion worth of exports in 2007-08.
"Our demands are not regarding immigration, but domestic regulations in
countries of our interest create problem in movement of out professionals.
Our interest lies in sectors like health, research and development,
engineering, constructions as well as computers," Nath said.
Elaborating India's stand on issues related to agriculture, Nath said "The
Special Safeguards Mechanism and Special Products (measures to protecting
farm sector from imports) are not negotiable. They are make-or-break
issues."
Nath also said that India is willing to consider proposals on sectoral
negotiations (sectors which will see zero duty, if the Doha Round is
successfully concluded) only after consulting industry.
"We will have to study the proposals first and discuss them with industry.
India has interests in the gems and jewellery sector on the issue," added
Nath.
Moreover, he termed the proposal on anti-concentration' as a caveat on
the use of flexibility (protective measures available for developing
countries on industrial goods) that defeats "the very rationale" of
flexibilities.
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