India For Balanced Outcome Of WTO Talks

India on Wednesday favoured a balanced outcome of the current round of WTO negotiations for an international trade order taking into account the needs of developing countries. Making an intervention on the opening day of the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers'' meeting in Kampala, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India has always supported a non-discriminatory, open and rule-based multilateral trading system. He said the rapid pace of globalisation and changes in global trading system presented both new opportunities as well as challenges for developing countries.

Mukherjee pointed out that parameters of WTO negotiations are enshrined in the Doha Ministerial declaration issued more than three years ago. He said it was important to ensure first that the Doha round of talks delivered on development and second it helped developing countries integrate in the world trading system and take advantage of opportunities. Mukherjee''s remarks on WTO talks came a day after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is going to take over as Commonwealth Chairman at the summit of the 53-nation multilateral grouping from Friday, had asked the forum''s members to break down trade barriers that prevented poor countries from exporting processed value added goods instead of raw materials.