Plurilateral trade deals undermine Doha Round prospects: IBSA

Meeting on the sidelines of World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, trade ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa today called for increased efforts among member countries of the World trade Organisation (WTO) to overcome the substantive gaps that exist among them and to address the issue of development deficit.

Commerce ministers Anand Sharma representing India, Antonio Patriota of Brazil and Rob Davies of South Africa met on the sidelines of the 42nd meeting of the World Economic Forum to review the current global financial and economic situation.

The ministers decried ''plurilateral initiatives'' that, they said, went against the fundamental principles of transparency, inclusiveness, and multilateralism.

Such agreements fail to address the development deficit inherited from previous negotiating rounds and weaken the resolve of WTO members to overcome the substantive gaps that exist among them, they said.

The ministers underlined the importance of resisting protectionist tendencies in the current global economic scenario, including competitive devaluation and regulatory measures that conceal their real protectionist ends.

Developing countries should use WTO-consistent measures to achieve their legitimate objectives of growth, development and stability, they said. Distortions caused by high levels of protection in the form of tariffs and subsidies in agriculture in developed countries continue to undermine the development prospects of developing countries, especially the least developed among them, they noted.