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Our Bureau

New Delhi , July 20

THE Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, today set off an interactive session with leaders of various political parties on WTO-related issues, especially in the wake of the draft framework for further negotiations which has been proposed by the General Council of the WTO for the consideration of member countries.

The first in the series of Mr Nath's meetings with the political parties spread over two days from today was with the leaders of CPI-M, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc. The Left party leaders comprising Mr Basudev Acharya, Mr Roophchand Pal, Mr P.Vasudevan Nair and Mr Bir Singh Mahato had an exchange of views with the Minister on issues of concern to India in the WTO negotiations, especially in the area of agriculture.

The Minister assured them of less than full reciprocity in tariff and subsidy reduction commitments in agriculture and special products must be taken care of and there should be a special and differential treatment to safeguard our agricultural interests.

Mr Nath also had a meeting with leaders of the BJP — Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr Mandvendra Singh. The discussions focussed on the implications of the framework for negotiations in the crucial area of agriculture, besides non-agricultural market access, services, Singapore issues and implementation-related issues. Mr Nath also met leaders of other major political parties — Mr Ramvilas Paswan of Lok Jan Shakti, Mr Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party, Mr P.Virendra Kumar of JD (S), Mr Nakul Das Rai and Mr Dawa Nanbe La of Sikkim Democratic Front and Mr Asaudddin Owaisi of AIMIM, Mr. B.Vinod Kumar of Telengana Rashtriya Samiti and Mr K. Francis George of Kerala Congress, an official release said here.

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