India on Sunday termed the WTO Framework Agreement as a major victory, saying it had secured significant gains and succeeded in fully protecting its interests in agriculture and other key areas.
Commenting on the agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said revival of the Doha process benefited India, according to an official release in Delhi.
Nath, who spearheaded developing nations' crusade against developed countries bulldozing their agenda, said the adoption of a framework that met India's key demands aimed at preserving the country's domestic policy space by providing for special products, special safeguard mechanism and special and differential treatment in respect of market access.
The framework sets out the guidelines for further negotiations under the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations encompassing the key areas of agriculture, non-agriculture market access, services and trade facilitation.
It dropped three issues relating to investment, competition policy and government procurement from the Doha agenda, which had led to the stalemate at Cancun leading to the collapse of the ministerial talks.
India's long standing demand along with G-33 developing nations for Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms in order to protect the interest of farmers have been met, the statement said.
The concept of proportionality, which would require lesser tariff reduction commitments from developing nations, was also a major gain for the country.
The tiered or banded approach that has been accepted takes into account the fact that sensitivities of developing countries in agriculture such as their tariff structure were fundamentally different from that of developed nations.
The framework provides that higher levels of trade distorting domestic support will be subject to deeper cuts, thereby recognising the point made by India and G20 that heavy subsidies given by developed nations were depressing world farm prices and hurting the interests of farmers in developing nations.
Apex industry chambers have welcomed the WTO Framework Agreement saying that several positive features in the new text will go a long way in boosting the developing countries' confidence in the multilateral trading system.
"It is satisfying to see that a number of our concerns have been addressed and reflected in the deal," Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said in a statement in Delhi.
Complimenting Commerce Minister Kamal Nath for his 'deft' handling of negotiations, the chamber said India's concerns particularly related to agriculture, implementation issues and special and differential treatment, services and trade facilitation have been effectively addressed in the new text.
Echoing similar views, the Confederation of Indian Industry said the Framework would provide the much-needed boost to the sagging Doha Development round of negotiations that were launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.
Recognising the role played by Nath and his team of negotiators, CII president S K Munjal said the Non-Agriculture Market Access in the July package provided a good basis for further negotiations.