The government on Monday said the progress in majority of the issues covered by the Doha Work Programme has been uneven and that success at the next ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun in September this year would depend on the ability of WTO members to complete their negotiations within the stipulated deadlines.
"The progress in most of the issues covered by the Doha Work Programme has been uneven. In particular, the deadlines given by the ministers at Doha on the three issues of importance to the developing countries, namely TRIPS and public health, special and diferential treatment, and the implementation-related issues and the concerns could not be adhered to," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Rajiv Pratap Rudy told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
He said India and other developing nations have strongly voiced their concerns in the WTO on the slow progress of the negotiations in these areas. "Success at the next ministerial conference of the WTO Cancun in September 2003 would greatly depend upon the ability of WTO members to complete work in respect of the issues for which deadlines had already been laid down," he said.
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