India may scale down offer
NEW DELHI :  India may scale down its offer on opening up the services sector at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in case offers in other areas are not improved by developed countries.

This was indicated by Commerce Secretary S. N. Menon, who said it would be difficult for India to justify the offer made in August 2004 if better offers are not forthcoming from its trading partners.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER), he said satisfactory offers had not been received from India's trading partners in the main areas of India's interest.

These include Mode 4 relating to movement of professionals and Mode 1 relating to cross border supply of services.

He felt that it would be difficult for this country to justify the inclusion of new sectors and improvements to commitments in existing sectors in its offer, if the next round of submitting offers in July did not correct the imbalance.

Mr. Menon stressed that India's revised offer submitted in 2004 was a substantial improvement over the initial offer for opening up services. He also pointed out that services negotiations were at a crucial stage.

It was thus important to arrive at an agreement in this sector along with issues in agriculture and industrial goods, he said. WTO member countries must submit revised offers by July 31, 2006, so as to finalise a draft text by December.

He said India has so far received 14 requests for opening up key sectors. These included the telecom, financial services, energy, legal, maritime, retail, education, environment and construction sectors.

Meanwhile, Trade Ministers from about 30 countries will attend a Mini-Ministerial in Geneva on from June 29 to July 2 in a bid to give a momentum to stalled negotiations in agricultural and non-agricultural market access.

Nath in Moscow for Eco. forum
MOSCOW : Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath arrived in Moscow to attend the 10th St Petersburg Economic Forum whose special focus would be on Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC).

The Economic Forum will be a prologue to the G8 summit in July.

Nath, who is in Russia on a three-day visit, would on Tuesday speak in the session on challenges of globalisation and competitive advantages of developing countries after the formal inauguration of the forum by President Vladimir Putin.

For the first time ahead of the G8 July summit in St. Petersburg, a special focus would be on the BRIC and Nath is scheduled to speak in the 'New Big 4 BRIC' session to be moderated by the President of Goldman Sachs Peter Sutherland.

During his St. Petersburg stay Nath is also scheduled to interact with the Russia-based Indian businesses, according to diplomatic sources.

In an interview to Itar-Tass last week, Nath had said India intends to develop trade and investment cooperation with Russia. He also pointed out that the Indian business circles prefer that Russia would develop trade more looking at the East than at the West.

He noted that India comes out for broader cooperation with the BRIC states.

CII delegation to go to Japan
NEW DELHI : Aiming at cementing the Indo-Japan economic ties, a 15-member delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), led by its president R Seshasayee, will leave on a three-day trip for Japan on June 14.

Significantly, a high-profile government delegation, led by the Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, will also attend an India-Japan Business Summit being organised at the same location.

The government delegation led by Mr Nath will focus on the key opportunities in India in manufacturing, infrastructure, biotechnology, and research and development.

Mr Kamal Nath and his Japanese counterpart Toshihiro Nikai will also address the summit.

About the importance of the CII mission, Mr Seshasayee said, ''India and Japan have enjoyed vibrant trading relations in the past. However, over the past decade, Indo-Japan trade has tended to stagnate and even decline, even as India's trade regime has become steadily more liberal.''

''The turnover in bilateral trade declined to $ 3.7 billion in 2002-03 as compared to 4.04 billion dollars in 1997-98. Over the past two years, however, this tendency towards stagnation was reversed, with total trade growing by 18 percent in 2003-04 and by 14 percent in 2004-05 to reach nearly $ 5 billion,'' he added.

Japan has emerged as the fourth-largest FDI contributor to India for the period from 1991 to 2004.

Consistently, Japanese companies such as Suzuki, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi Chemicals have invested in India, reiterating their faith in the fastest growing free market democracy, the CII President said.

During the visit, CII delegation will appraise the Japanese counterparts about the India growth story and identify various means to enhance bilateral trade across sectors, in order to realise Indo-Japanese bilateral trade potential.