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INDIA ASKS FOR COMPLETION OF STUDY PROCESS ON INVESTMENT, COMPETITION POLICY
Date : 11 Nov 2001
Location : New Delhi
India has asked for completion of the ongoing study process on Singapore issues i.e. investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation before going in for negotiations on these subjects. In an intervention on Singapore issues at the meeting of the Committee of Whole of the WTO Doha Ministerial Conference last evening, Mr. Murasoli Maran, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, said India was of the view that these issues should be studied further and such decisions should not be rushed. "The Singapore Declaration has stipulated ‘explicit consensus decisions’ are required particularly on Investment and Competition. We should not simply be coerced into taking decisions", he said. The continuation of the ongoing study process on these issues is important in view of the inadequate understanding of all its implications. Multilateral agreements on Investment and Competition policy would severely impact on our development policy by constraining our domestic policy options, he said.
Why should be go for a multilateral agreement on investment when the current framework of bilateral and regional agreements is working well and gives sufficient policy flexibility to host countries and the necessary protection to investors, he asked. Similarly, on Competition Policy, he wondered how it could be decided whether multilateral agreements on these subjects were needed even before the countries acquired sufficient experience and institutional maturity on these issues. Besides, he pointed out that in India a national Competition Law was still in the process of being enacted.
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SB/MRS
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