New
Delhi: An issue paper prepared by India has received
broad support in the Core Ministerial Group on Services
as a basis for moving forward in the ongoing WTO negotiations
in services.
The
commerce and industry minister, Kamal Nath, tabled this
paper in Geneva on Wednesday at a meeting of the Core
Group, which was jointly co-chaired by him and Robert
Portman, the US Trade Representative (USTR).
An
official release made available here today said that India's
paper aims to provide a structure and focus on the various
issues on which a decision would be required at the WTO's
Hong Kong ministerial conference in December in order
to achieve a balanced and meaningful package on services
at the end of the current Doha round of multilateral trade
negotiations.
Ministers
and senior officials of 15 countries (Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, European Communities, Egypt,
India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, and
the US) attended the core group meeting.
The
meeting was convened to consider concrete ways of imparting
"specificity and momentum" to the services negotiations.
The
official release said that members of the core group agreed
on certain basic principles that would guide further work
in negotiating the guidelines and procedures on services.
It
was also decided that the issue paper tabled by India
would be shared with the whole membership of the WTO for
both transparency
and to facilitate moving ahead in this important area
of negotiations.
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