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NEW DELHI, March 14

THE European Union Trade Commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy, on Friday described the road ahead to Cancun Ministerial meeting as "bumpy" and likened major players as elephants and said "elephants are good animals on bumpy road".

At the end of his two-day hectic schedule here Mr Lamy said in a news conference that the EU, the US , India, Japan and Brazil are all elephants, which co-sponsor in negotiations in the multilateral trade talks. He said during his visit he had met the Ministers of Agriculture, Commerce and Finance and the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Commerce, NGOs, and civil societies.

"The main lesson is that we have found a large number of areas in WTO agenda of the Doha Negotiating Programme where our values and interest meet and we will now sit together as to how we can defend them" in the coming months, he said.

In his talks with Mr Ajit Singh, there was an agreement on agriculture and also elimination of export subsidy in rich countries, which distort farm trade, he said. There was a commonality of view on the market access side of agricultural negotiations, he said, besides on genetically modified foods. Another area is geographical indication (GIs) and some "good alliances" would materialise on issues such as basmati rice and European wines. Similarly there is a commonality of view on industrial tariffs, he said. While the proposal for zero tariffs was not good for developing countries, he said the EU was "favourably looking at the idea that "developing countries need not match each and every proposal on industrial tariffs."

He also pointed out the advantages India has in services negotiations where there is now some common position between the EU and India with the former taking up New Delhi's concern on the movement of natural persons as service providers under Mode 4 of the WTO pact.

Mr Lamy said even on Singapore issues such as competition and investment, "where we used to be quite apart, the position is now more relaxed with the steps India taking domestically in this regard being in the right direction". There is also similarity of views on public health concern voiced by India, he noted.

Mr Lamy said that both sides are working on a bilateral textile agreement under which "you export more into the EU and we export more into India for a win-win situation".

He said both the sides would be moving towards a customs cooperation agreement and maritime transport agreement. He said the EU was aware of "the friction-areas and the sensitivity of India in a number of FDI issues and probably concessions extended to Pakistan in textiles".

To a query on the growing transatlantic troubles that might cast its shadow on the Ministerial meeting at Cancun, Mr Lamy said that these bilateral issues would not affect their commitments to multilateralism.

He said the EU was engaging itself with the US, India, AEPC countries and China, so that the number of common-points could be enlarged and disagreement narrowed which `is the name of the game" of negotiations. He further said that in an uncertain international climate and security environment, trade remained the last refuge for enforcing discipline and rules so as to ensure gains to all.

On the situation in the Gulf, he said that even as the probable loss of trade would be around one billion dollars a day, "our effort would be to ensure that this does not spill into developing countries".

`India, EU will strive to cut red tape'

THE European Union (EU) and India are working together to put in place bilateral agreements aimed at facilitating business contacts and easing complicated and lengthy administrative procedures, according to the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Pascal Lamy.

Addressing a meeting on `EU-India economic relationship — Working Together', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Lamy said that "we have already signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation and we want to negotiate agreements on textiles, customs cooperation and hopefully maritime transport as well".

He said that India would gain immensely if it capitalises on its domestic reforms in a basic multilateral agreement on investment proposed as part of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. "A multilateral framework agreement on investment will be of immense benefit to India's dynamic corporate sector," he added.

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