Suzhou (China): The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has sought China's co-operation in securing the legitimate interests of developing countries at future multilateral trade negotiations.

"We have proposed a five-point co-operation programme to the Shanghai World Trade Organisation (WTO) affairs consulting centre, so that interests of developing countries like India and China are protected at future multilateral trade negotiations," FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra said.

Mitra, who was here to participate in a "Corporate Retreat" organised by FICCI, to understand the Chinese economy and market, said the proposed areas of co-operation include efforts to address inequalities in quantitative restrictions and multi fibre agreement, tariffs on products from developing countries, massive agriculture subsidies in European Union (EU) and US, Singapore issues and implementation issues.

While developing nations had done away with quantitative restrictions, EU and US still have them in place, Mitra said and called for co-operation between India and China to ensure that developing and developed countries have a level playing field in terms of market access.

Secondly, the two sides could work together to reduce tariffs in developed countries, he said adding FICCI research has shown that in some developed countries, tariff escalations reach as high as 200 per cent.

Another area for Sino-India co-operation is on the issue of agricultural subsidy, he said and noted that EU currently provides subsidies worth $ 300 billion to its farmers.

Another area where the two countries could work together is on the Singapore issues including investment, competition policies and links between trade and environment and labour standards.

On the environment policy, he cautioned that while the two countries should clean up their environment, they should not become victims of environmental standards for trade at any level and at every point and go into an irreparable disadvantage.

On labour standards, he said India and China should work together to ensure that labour issues remain with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and do not become part of WTO negotiations.

Mitra also stressed the need for co-operation in the implementation issues, pointing out that before the Doha WTO round, only two out of 93 implementation issues were done.

In Doha, 40 issues were brought back to the table owing to intense pressure from developing countries like India, he added.

PTI