& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

US proposals to revive WTO talks

China reacts positively

AFP, Beijing
China has reacted positively to US proposals to restart World Trade Organization (WTO) talks stalled over differences between developed and developing countries, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Thursday.
"It was generally very positive," Zoellick told reporters about the reaction from Chinese officials he met with Thursday, including Vice Premier Wu Yi and Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou.
"On export subsidies... they opened up by saying they appreciated the comments in my letter about seeking eliminations."
Zoellick said he had written a letter to all 148 WTO members outlining new ideas for a negotiating framework, and one was to eliminate all agriculture export subsidies and to reduce domestic subsidies.
Developing countries, including
China, argue massive government assistance to farmers in the industrialised world depresses prices and makes it impossible for them to compete in global markets.
Zoellick said his one-day visit to China was to present the proposals personally and to see how the US and China can work on some of the sticking points in restarting WTO talks, and argued the two sides actually shared similar interests in global trade.
As part of its WTO accession, China decided not to use export subsidies on agricultural products and has limited its use of domestic subsidies, Zoellick said.
"China has also lowered a lot of its agricultural tariffs, lower than in many countries in the world," the trade representative said.
"And so it has an interest in getting other countries to lower agricultural tariffs.
"So that's an area where we're working together and one of the
purposes of my visit is I wanted to learn more about China's agriculture export interests, so we can try to work together in terms of opening markets for our products and theirs."
Efforts to reduce world trade barriers, launched with great fanfare in November 2001 in the Qatari capital Doha, have ground to a nearhalt since the collapse of the last WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico in September.
The Cancun session fell apart in disputes over agricultural export subsidies, which developing countries want to see abolished, and over EU and Japanese insistence that the WTO extend its mandate to such areas as investment and competition policy.
China's Xinhua news agency Thursday quoted Wu as saying she welcomed Zoellick's proposals.