"Elephants cannot ignore ants" says Shri Murasoli Maran.
| Close on the heels of
the inconclusive WTO General Council Meeting in Geneva, Shri Maran said
in an interview with Business Line " We too know the techniques,strategies
and tricks to pursuade the developing countries to have a study or discussion
or working group and then push for the exercise to be upgraded to negotiations
towards new agreements…during negotiations they (the developed countries)
put strong pressure at different levels.In the process, the developing
countries will have no option but to succumb..The developing countries
should be aware of the old practice…In the Uruguay Round, many countries
signed the agreements without knowing their implications.Many others, without
being aware of the rules were under the illusion that rules could be amended
during implementation.That is why the milestones of implementation are
around our neck.India is in the forefront of developing countries in articulating
these issues ….We have already paid a down payment when we unwillingly
agreed to TRIPS,TRIMS and Services.Such imbalances will become worse and
the burden more intolerable if the developing world simply caved in to
pressures……Affordable medicines has become a cry of the third world…In
1978 in the Tokyo Round both US and the EEC introduced a proposal for taking
anti-counterfeiting measures which looked innocuous then but finally metamorphised
to TRIPS…no wonder that Prof Jagdish Bhagavati , a former advisor to GATT
Director-General said the WTO has become a royalty collecting agency…There
is a cry from Geneva that the elephants of Trade have joined hands.But
the ants of the world should also come into the fold if you want to strengthen
WTO".
So delightfully different
from the earlier years of Indian handling of WTO affairs
|