Ahead of the G-20 Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that a positive outcome of the Doha Round of WTO talks for a global trade deal is of strategic interest to India.
"I have repeatedly stated that India has a strategic stake in the successful functioning of the multilateral trading system and in a positive outcome of the Doha Round," Singh said in an interview to British daily The Financial Times.
With global trade expected to shrink drastically in 2009, the issue of increasing protectionism is expected to come up for an intense discussion at the summit in London among the leaders of the advanced and developing economies which account for over 80 per cent of the multilateral trade.
Asked to react to the US blaming India for failure of the July 2008 round of WTO talks in Geneva, the prime minister said, "There is no truth in the charge that India is responsible for the deadlock . . ."
He said there were many areas of differences between different groups of countries, including between the US and the Europe. It was also true that differences on a vast number of areas were narrowed. The negotiators just did not have enough time," he said referring to the July talks which collapsed.
"In our case the differences related to sensitive issue affecting the livelihood of small and vulnerable farmers," Singh said, adding India took 'onerous obligations' in the 1990s to bring the WTO into existence.
But he insisted that the final deal has to address the development objectives of the Doha Round.
The trade talks running into the ninth year have not been able to sew up a multilateral agreement as neither developed nor developing countries are willing to give away their turf, while seeking increased global markets for their own products.