For all of the bonhomie between the newly minted US Trade Representative Susan C Schwab and India's Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, the Bush Administration's message to New Delhi was clear: make sure you carry the developing nations so as to envisage the successful completion of the Doha Round in Geneva.
In an interaction with the media, after delivering the closing keynote address at the 31st Anniversary Leadership Summit of the US-India Business Council, Nath said, "I have informed Ambassador Schwab of India's commitment toward the successful completion," of the Doha Round.
He said that India subscribed fully to the multilateral system "and we want to see that it is strengthened, and strengthened no merely because of market access, but there is the issues of rules and the whole structure of it at this point of time and in the global economy it is very important to have a strong structure."
Besides, during their ministerial-level meeting of the US Trade Policy Forum, Schwab brought up this issue forcefully in her remarks at the USIBC conference and said the successful Doha Round would have implications for the future potential of US-India trade.
Even US Vice President Dick Cheney, who delivered the opening keynote speech at the USIBC event, pulled no punches in saying that "India can also show the same kind of reform-minded leadership by pressing for the conclusion of an ambitious agreement this year at the Doha Round."
Allan Hubbard, the White House Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, also lamented the lack of progress at the Doha Round talks in Hong Kong and urged India's support during the negotiations in Geneva this week.
Hubbard said the US and its partners have an ambitious program but the support for successfully completing this Round has been "rather disappointing."
Nath said in Geneva, "We'll be putting our groupings together, discussing it within our groupings to ensure that we reach a conclusion and meet the deadline we have before us."
The minister said his optimism was manifested this time around "because one big difference, which I have said many times before between the Uruguay Round (of the erstwhile General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and predecessor of the World Trade Organization)and the Doha Round is in the Uruguay Round many countries did not want to be engaged."
"There was a thought that this Uruguay Round is nothing but a suicide round, whereas now, in the Doha Round, all countries want to remain engaged. All countries want to be a part in framing the rules of the game of global trade."
Consequently, Nath asserted that "we will be driving it as much as we can. Of course, all countries have their perceptions, have their compulsions, have their sensitivities."
He acknowledged that "sensitivities have to be addressed, sensitivities have to be respected, but certainly sensitivities cannot be used to block trade. I must say whether it is in any country, we cannot use the ploy that in the garb of sensitivities we stop trade."
"But at the same time," Nath said, "we have to make sure what these sensitivities are and its implications. So all that is on the table now."
Nath said that "really, what we are going to be doing in Geneva is what we should have been doing in Hong Kong. The modalities were supposed to have been sorted out in Hong Kong."
"But despite the uphill task, I am optimistic it's the desire of all countries not to fracture the multilateral system," he said.
Asked to respond to Schwab's remarks at the Council's conference that the US wants a 'big and ambitious package,' and whether this wouldn't be a case for going for too much in this round and had the danger of fracturing this round, Nath eschwed criticizing Washington. "Each country wants a lot, so does the EU (European Union), so do the LDCs (Lesser Developed Countries). There is no problem in aiming high, but at the end of the day all this has to be tempered."
"We also want it. India also wants it," he acknowledged. "But we'll have to temper ourselves. We certainly don't want what we call a light round, just package anything. We want to make sure this is an effective instrument of enhancing trade."
Earlier in the day, Schwab and Nath led the American and Indian delegations for the third Ministerial-level meeting of the US-India Trade Policy Forum, and agreed on a number of initiatives to what both sides said were to 'strengthen and deepen the bilateral trading relationship.'
According to a USTR statement, "With India already among the United States' fastest growing major bilateral trade relationships, the cooperative steps endorsed today will serve to further trade and investment, with the goal of doubling two-way trade in three years."
Among the number of initiatives the US and India agreed upon, included: