India has reiterated that the trade facilitation package for upgrading customs and port infrastructure being worked out at the World Trade Organisation should be soft on poorer countries and provide them with technical and financial support.

In a meeting with key Ambassadors to the WTO in Geneva on Tuesday, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma pitched for a balanced package in the forthcoming Ministerial meet in Bali that has the interest of Least Developed Countries and developing countries at its core.

The Minister said that while India was not opposed to trade facilitation, there has to be adequate special and differential treatment for developing countries and LDCs and Small and Vulnerable Economies.

“Emerging economies ha

India has reiterated that the trade facilitation package for upgrading customs and port infrastructure being worked out at the World Trade Organisation should be soft on poorer countries and provide them with technical and financial support.

In a meeting with key Ambassadors to the WTO in Geneva on Tuesday, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma pitched for a balanced package in the forthcoming Ministerial meet in Bali that has the interest of Least Developed Countries and developing countries at its core.

The Minister said that while India was not opposed to trade facilitation, there has to be adequate special and differential treatment for developing countries and LDCs and Small and Vulnerable Economies.

“Emerging economies have to carry a disproportionate burden of poverty and huge income disparities and they therefore merit a special and preferential treatment,” Sharma said.

He also made a case for providing technical and financial support to such economies so that they benefit from trade facilitation.

Sharma supported a LDC package including Duty Free Quota Free market access, which countries such as India and China have already implemented, and said it must be part of the Bali package.

The Minister said that India strongly endorsed the proposal made by the G-33 group (an alliance of countries with defensive interest in agriculture) on food security and flexibility in their public stock holding operations for public distribution system. The interest of subsistence farmers in developing and poor countries have to be recognised and protected.

Denouncing the emerging pluri-lateral arrangements within the WTO, the Minister stressed on the need to uphold the centrality of multilateralism and WTO as an institution for creating a rule-based global trading regime.

ve to carry a disproportionate burden of poverty and huge income disparities and they therefore merit a special and preferential treatment,” Sharma said.

He also made a case for providing technical and financial support to such economies so that they benefit from trade facilitation.

Sharma supported a LDC package including Duty Free Quota Free market access, which countries such as India and China have already implemented, and said it must be part of the Bali package.

The Minister said that India strongly endorsed the proposal made by the G-33 group (an alliance of countries with defensive interest in agriculture) on food security and flexibility in their public stock holding operations for public distribution system. The interest of subsistence farmers in developing and poor countries have to be recognised and protected.

Denouncing the emerging pluri-lateral arrangements within the WTO, the Minister stressed on the need to uphold the centrality of multilateralism and WTO as an institution for creating a rule-based global trading regime.