(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) India & The World | July 2014

July-2014

India said at the WTO General Council meeting in Geneva that the failure of the trade body to work in the interests of all its members and to deliver meaningfully on the development mandate of the Doha Development Round would pose a far more serious risk to its credibility than any other factor.
India suggested that the adoption of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) be postponed till satisfactory progress is made on the issue of finding permanent protection for India’s minimum support prices to farmers against the WTO subsidy caps that are benchmarked to food prices of the 1980s.
India said it was not opposed to the TFA but demanded that other decisions of Bali be taken forward in the same time frame and demanded that the adoption of the TF Protocol be postponed till a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security is found.
India proposed modifications to the Protocol, including setting December 31, 2014 as the deadline for finding a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security, Other suggestions include the immediate establishment of an institutional mechanism such as a dedicated Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture to arrive at the permanent solution by the deadline.
India pointed out that the developing countries had accepted the Bali package in good faith reassured by the renewed affirmation of commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and its development dimension

China is planning the construction of two railway lines in Tibet that will extend up to the border with India and are expected to be completed by 2020.
The railway lines will run from the town of Shigatse, which next month will be connected to the Qinghai-Tibet railway line that extends to Lhasa.
Railway line will be further extended during the 13th five year plan period (2016-2020), running to two regions near the border with India: Yatung, a trade centre close to Sikkim and Bhutan, and to Nyingchi in the east, near the Arunachal Pradesh border.
A third railway line will be build to Gyirong, where there is a trade and border checkpoint connecting Tibet’s Yatung county and Nepal.
It will accelerate transportation of the mineral products, which could only be transmitted through highways that often risk being cut off during rainy seasons or see vehicle turnovers, the bargaining chips will be increased on the Chinese side if people in the South Tibet region see better economic development in southwestern Tibet.

India will be hosting the 7th IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) Summit in 2015.
IBSA is a trilateral initiative amongst India, Brazil and South Africa “to promote, inter-alia, South-South cooperation and exchange”.
The platform was announced, following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries in Brasilia in 2003, through the adoption of the Brasilia Declaration.
The IBSA summit involves consultations at the Heads of State level while meetings between Ministers and officials are held at the Trilateral Joint Commission and Focal Point levels respectively.
New Delhi would also be hosting the India Africa Forum in December this year.

Protesting against the imbalance in favour of developed countries at the ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations at Geneva, India broke away from the consensus on the Trade Facilitation (TF) Protocol. India’s refusal to ratify this agreement that has been readied to their satisfaction as a follow up to the Bali Ministerial decisions of last December has led to a stalemate at the talks.
In a strong statement India said it will support the TF agreement only if there is progress in Geneva on mechanisms for ensuring permanent protection of the government’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) against the

The new government is clear that the MSP is a tool important enough for us to take this stand at the WTO.
India has repeatedly expressed concern over the uneven pace of work at the negotiations in Geneva over the past few months but despite that the imbalance in progress has persisted.

Mr. Kerry will be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with a full delegation for the fifth Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue.
Mr. Kerry will also meet Mr. Jaitley, and sources said discussions on defence purchases that the U.S. is pushing, including helicopters, missiles, and ultra-light howitzer guns, are expected to be positive.
During the strategic dialogue, India and the U.S. will try and iron out the issues in conducting civil nuclear trade. Despite interest from companies such as Westinghouse and GE, trade has been blocked over U.S. concerns on India’s suppliers’ liability clause. India has already been able to cross similar hurdles with France and Russia.