Wednesday, September 7 2005 15:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With European Union showing some signs of flexibility on agriculture there appears to be forward movement on the contentious multilateral trade issues ahead of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in December.

"We are going in the right direction on these (agriculture) and I welcome the guidance that India has been giving," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said referring to G-20 developing countries farm proposal, which has been embraced by EU.

Speaking at the sixth India-EU Business summit, Mandelson said there was need to reach sensible conclusions on agriculture both in terms of market access and domestic support as well as export subsidies".

G-20, which includes India, Brazil, China, South Africa, Egypt has proposed elimination of export subsidies and a commitment to phase out domestic support in a time bound manner by developed countries to provide market access to developing nations.

"I believe sincerely that India will be a winner from greater openness. The opportunity to achieve that lies in the Doha Round, an the chance to materialize India's essential domestic reforms", he said asking India to join with EU to act with boldness and make the case for greater openness to the rest of the WTO membership.

On India's services offer, he said there was a case to open further especially services like retail.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said both India and EU shared the common objective of strengthening the multilateral trading system and were hopeful of bouquet of results from current WTO talks to provide developing countries better opportunities to use trade for fulfilling their development goals.

Alan Johnson, the UK Minister for Trade and Industry, said India has a vital role to play in the multilateral trade negotiations and emphasised that Hong Kong cannot repeat the failure of Cancun.

He said the UK had tackled any argument against off shoring head-on but emphasised it was important for the process to be a two-way street.

"Services accounts for two-thirds of the EU GDP, and half of yours. We stand to benefit from the Indian service providers, offshore and onshore. But, Europe also has much to offer you in this area: in retail, in accountancy, in advice on company law, in insurance," he said.

Asking India to move forward with its process of liberalization in these areas, Johnson also sought market access for European wines and spirits.