Mr.
Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry has stated
that the Union government is committed to the establishment
of a rule-based multilateral trading regime. He was addressing
the heads of missions’ meeting at a session on ‘India
and Doha Round’.
“While
we go to the negotiating table, we remain conscious of the
interests of the millions of our farmers, the interests
of our small and medium enterprises and we remain committed
to the aspirations of our booming services industry to get
greater market access.
The
WTO world trade report of 2009 which has been recently released
has emphasized that it is important to keep trade open in
times of crisis.
In
crisis, says the report, governments face pressure to adopt
measures which may restrict trade and there are real dangers
that such pressures, if not addressed adequately, can lead
to a dangerous escalation. Contingency measures can act
as a safety valve in such instances and can play an important
role in maintaining a rule-based system of multilateral
trade.
These
are the conclusions of World Trade Organization economists
in a report on contingency measures in the WTO’s 2009
World Trade Report.
This
year’s Report examines the range of measures in WTO
trade agreements that governments may call upon when facing
economic difficulties (such as safeguards, anti-dumping,
increase in tariffs up to allowed WTO ceilings etc) and
the role that these measures can play. Trade growth will
be strongly negative this year. Although this contraction
appears to be slowing, the economic situation remains fragile.
Continuing downside risks led WTO economists to revise further
downward its forecast for 2009 world merchandise trade from
a decline in volume of 9 per cent to a decline of 10 per
cent. The response of governments around the world will
play a big part in determining the magnitude of this decline
and its duration. “
The
analysis of economic effects of the use of contingent measures
reviewed in the World Trade Report suggests two main conclusions.
First, the design of such measures should aim at limiting
the circumstances when they can be used as a protectionist
device. Second, the design of contingency measures should
not undermine the role of trade agreements. Contingency
measures should not be designed in a way that upsets the
balance of a trade agreement
