New Delhi: India on September 19 said the European Union had lost the moral ground to bring in contentious Singapore issues into the work programme of World Trade Organisation (WTO) after it was blocked by over 80 developing nations in the recently concluded Ministerial at Cancun.

"On Singapore issues, EU has lost the moral ground," Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) function to felicitate him for successfully articulating India's concerns at the Cancun Ministerial.

The WTO Ministerial collapsed as several developing and least-developed countries, mostly from Africa, blocked the talks demanding that all four Singapore issues of investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation be dropped from negotiations as there was no explicit consensus.

This happened at a time when European Union, the main sponsor of Singapore issues, virtually agreed to drop permanently investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement from negotiations.

At that point, India was willing to move forward if it had got something on agriculture, yet another contentious issue that was to be taken up at the WTO talks after a resolution on Singapore issues.

PTI