Trade-tango depends on Pakistan’s initiatives
New Delhi: Pakistani initiatives in the areas of trade and economic ties will hold the key to India’s stand on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline. Officials in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said that India’s reservations were by no means lessened despite recent assurances held out by Islamabad. On Tuesday, Pakistani authorities had said their government was willing to give all necessary security guarantees to New Delhi regarding the proposed $4.5 billion Indo-Iran gas pipeline project to be laid through its soil. They also ruled out any dialogue on a feasibility report for the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan (TAP) project. Pakistan petroleum minister Naurez Shakoor was reported as having expressed confidence that India would give a second look at it.
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G-8 summit to be briefed on plight of coffee growers
Bangalore: The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) would make a presentation before the leaders of G-8 summit on the plight of nearly 125 million people affected by the steep fall in coffee prices. The presentation will be based on the conclusions reached at a high-level round-table on coffee crisis organised jointly by the World Bank and the ICO in London on May 19. The G-8 summit will be held in the first week of June in Evian in France. French President Chirac, the host country for the G-8 summit, had promised to raise the issue of commodity prices with fellow leaders of the world’s rich nations during the summit. Though the round-table in London has not succeeded in hammering out any dramatic package for reviving coffee prices, it has called upon the United States to rejoin ICO and asked the rich nations to share the burden of the crisis afflicting people in coffee producing countries. The United States withdrew from ICO in 1989.
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Draft proposes longer time-frame for poor nations to eliminate tariffs
New Delhi: While industrialised countries will have to eliminate tariffs on industrial products in five years from January 1, 2005, those in the third world will have a longer period of 15 years to do so from this date. For this, the chairman of the negotiating group on market access has proposed a formula as well as sectoral approach in the first draft of the elements of modalities for negotiations and circulated it among all the World Trade Organisation (WTO) members for their consideration. As per the Doha mandate, these modalities are to be established by May 31 and a final agreement on the subject is to be reached by January 1, 2005.
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