3rd June 2009
Bridges Weekly - India Appoints New Trade Minister
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Anand Sharma has been appointed India’s new trade minister, New Delhi announced last week, making him the country’s point person in the Doha Round of trade talks at the WTO. Kamal Nath, who served as India’s trade minister from May 2004 until last month, will now serve as minister of road transport and highways.
The 56-year-old Sharma is known as an articulate speaker and a loyal member of India’s ruling Congress Party. A lawyer by training, he has also served as a spokesman for the Congress Party, as minister of state for external affairs, and as minister of state for information and broadcasting.
Sharma is reportedly a close associate of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose Congress Party retained its control of the government in national elections held in April and May. The new Minister of Commerce and Industry is expected to follow his Prime Minister’s lead, especially given that he has little experience on trade matters.
The world trade community has awaited this announcement for some time. The collapse of the most recent high-level talks at the WTO was largely attributed to a clash between India and the United States over the details of an agricultural safeguard mechanism. Since that stand-off, which took place in Geneva in July of last year, both countries have appointed new trade ministers.
“I just had a telephone conversation with the US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. We had the preliminary exchange of views on the present economic crisis, how adversely it is impacting different regions,” Sharma told the Press Trust of India in an interview.
“The issues which came in the way of the World Trade Organization discussions last year also need to be discussed and sorted out,” Sharma told India’s Economic Times. “We remain committed to that.”
Sharma and Kirk will meet in person on the sidelines of a summit of the Cairns group of agricultural-exporting countries that is set to take place in Bali on 6-7 June. Neither India nor the United States is a member of the 19-nation group, but the two countries, along with the EU, China and Japan, are expected to send trade delegations to the meeting. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy will also be in Bali for the summit.
“We are positively inclined towards carrying forward talks,” Sharma said. “Right now, the Bali meeting of the Cairns group will provide a useful platform for further discussions.”
ICTSD reporting; “India names Anand Sharma new trade minister,” REUTER, 28 May 2009; “New ministers resume India-US talks on WTO at Bali weekend,” PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, 1 June 2009; “Budges set to pack in sops for manufacturing,” THE ECONOMIC TIMES (INDIA), 2 June 2009; “It is ‘Jai Ho’ for Anand Sharma,” TIMES OF INDIA, 22 May 2009.
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