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WTO Negotiations in Dalian Making 'Progress': Indian Officials
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Ministers gathered at an informal World Trade Organisation meeting here
are optimistic that they could make progress after the European Union and the
United States expressed support for the G-20 proposal on market access in
agriculture.
The EU and the US have expressed support for the G-20
proposal on market access in agriculture in the ongoing Doha Round of
multilateral trade negotiations, which is a move forward, Indian officials
attending the Dalian Informal Ministerial Meeting said here.
They noted
that EU Agricultural Commissioner Marianne Boll Fischer, who spoke at the
inaugural close-door session of the meeting here yesterday, said: "We are
willing to develop the structure of an agricultural market access formula using
the G-20 proposal as a starting point."
The US, a votary of the Swiss
formula which had been strongly opposed by the G-20 and the developing
countries, conceded that the G-20 proposal was a "positive contribution."
The expression of support by the EU's Fischer and US Trade
Representative Rob Portman came soon after Foreign and Trade Minister of Brazil
Celso Amorim and Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath expressed
their views at the mini-ministerial opening session on agriculture, the sources
said.
The mini-summit, which will end today, is an attempt to breathe
new life into the stalled Doha round of WTO trade talks that were started in
2001 but have missed nearly all their targets for reducing global trade
barriers.
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(Editor:Farah Song) (From:Asia Pulse )
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