EVIAN: Prime Minister Vajpayee has
called for removal of visas and non-visa obstructions to the free movement
of people for providing services.
Intervening at the G-8's extended dialogue on Sunday,
Vajpayee said there was need for some ``benchmarks'' for monitoring the
outcomes of the Doha round
in terms of concrete progress towards a global trading regime. He said
while commitments were made in the past, ``there is now an imperative
urgency for their realisation''.
While Vajpayee's proposal on visa
regime is aimed at pushing Indian IT services abroad, he is pushing
equally hard for the elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers to
developing country exports as well as the phase out of trade-distorting
agricultural subsidies and removal of barriers to agricultural
exports.
Another issue of concern put forward
by Vajpayee was for broader access of developing countries to
pharamaceuticals. Besides these issues, he stressed the need for
generating additional financial flows for development. ``I believe that
the time has come for us to seriously consider the idea of a small levy on
international capital flows,'' he said, adding the money so collected
could be used for development.
He also urged attention at a British
proposal for an International Finance Facility and the Asian Bonds
initiative of the Thai PM. He said both were forms of guarantee systems
that made capital available for development projects. But he cautioned
against discarding ``the sound regimes for multilateral development
finance'' that have been built up for the purpose in the past
decades.
He told the meeting that the
non-ratification of the Kyoto Protocol had stalled the Clean Development
Mechanism for investment and technology flows to developing countries for
carbon credits. This had impeded many programmes for renewable energy and
energy conservation. Likewise the Convention of Biological Diversity had
failed to transfer technologies to developing countries in return for
their biodiversity resources.
He warned that if measures were not
taken to realise these goals quickly, ``it is going to become impossible
in most developing countries to secure political support for further trade
liberalisation or environmental measures''.
India is not a
member of the G-8 which comprises the eight most industrialised nations of
the world: France,
Germany, Japan, UK, US, Canada, Italy and Russia. But it is one of a group of
developing countries invited by French president Jacques Chirac for
Sunday's informal summit, a day before the G-8 summit begins on June
2.
Chirac's aim in inviting these
countries is two fold: First, to underscore France's interest in promoting a
multipolar world and the second, to answer anti-globalisation critics who
turn up at the G-8 summits in large numbers to protest the policies of the
rich countries. By his ``broader dialogue'' initiative, Chirac wants to
disarm these critics who mainly reside in the G-8 countries themselves. A
senior Indian diplomat traveling with the PM said: ``This is a very great
innovation.''
At Sunday's working lunch and
meetings, Vajpayee and the world leaders met without aides on what the
official said was ``an open-ended discussion'' on a range of subjects
ranging from security, development, good governance and
democracy.
The third world countries have many
concerns. First, the multilateral trading system remains shaky. The
failure of the Doha round
has caused instability by leaving over decisions on trade-related aspects
of intellectual property rights and access to essential medicines, the
removal of barriers to non-agricultural trade and the liberalisation of
trade.
High subsidies in developing countries
have hampered agricultural growth in developing countries. The WTO members
had agreed to commit a framework for agriculture negotiations by March 31
but the deadline was missed because of the difficulty of bridging the EU
and US positions.
Equally important is the issue of
provisions that are supposed to give developing countries preferential
treatment. Yet the third deadline for the negotiations have been missed.
The Doha deadlock must be
broken because failure would create problems for all. The G-8 leaders have
the opportunity to do
this.
