Preparations in full swing in Agra for next month's G-21 summit:
[India News]: Agra, Jan 2 : A three-member Central committee today visited Agra to supervise arrangements for next month's seventh summit of G-21 countries.
The G-21 Group is a block of developing countries including Brazil, India and China tackling common trade issues in WTO negotiations.
The committee, consisting of senior officials of Commerce Ministry, took stock of the logistics and agenda for the summit. "The meeting will be held on 19th and 20th February in 2005 in Agra in which all the issues will be discussed. One issue will be agriculture," said G.K. Pillai, Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry.
The G-21 groups Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Venezuela and Egypt which joined the group lately.
This block of developing countries bargained strongly with the developed block of countries when the WTO member countries sealed the Framework Agreement at the General Council meeting in Geneva on August 1 last year.
The G-21 wants the rich countries to cut huge subsidies in the farm sector and allow greater market access.
The February summit of the largely agriculture dependent economies would pave the way for further negotiations at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference in December. (ANI)
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