US hopes India, China and Brazil will help conclude Doha round

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Mar 15 (PTI) Asserting that the United States
is engaged in trying to pursue an ambitious agreement for the
Doha Round, a top White House official on Monday hoped that
major trading partners like China, India and Brazil will help
successfully conclude the Doha round of trade negotiations.
"We are very much engaged in trying to pursue a ambitious
agreement for the Doha Round. We're engaged bilaterally with
major trading partners. We're engaged in the multilateral
process in Geneva. We're engaged plural laterally with various
groupings of countries," US Deputy National Security Advisor
Mike Froman told reporters Monday.
The United States, he said, believes that it is important
that the Doha Round creates meaningful market access if it is
going to be successful.
"That's what we're focusing on right now and we hope that
our major trading partners, including China, India, Brazil,
will come to the table with a similar approach and a similar
attitude with the objective of creating a strong agreement,"
Froman said in response to a question.
The recently concluded Asia-Pacific Cooperation Senior
Officials Meeting, he said, discussed the Doha round.
Even though, it was not an APEC-specific area of work, it
will be very much on the minds of the leaders.
There will be a Trade Ministers' meeting or Ministers
Responsible for Trade meeting at the end of May in Big Sky in
Montana, where Doha will also be one of the central issues
discussed, he said. PTI LKJ