AREAS OF CONCERNS: Seeks Discussions On Fishery Subsidies, Bio-Piracy Amiti Sen NEW DELHI INDIA is determined to have a say in the agenda for the mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled on July 21. It has decided to oppose the move of a few developed countries, backed by the WTO secretariat, to include just agriculture and Nama issues in the ministerial talks. India wants to ensure that issues of importance to developing countries such as concessions in the area of fisheries subsidies and checking bio-piracy by amending the Trips agreement are also included in the agenda. Speaking to ET, government sources pointed out that the agenda for the miniministerial meeting should be ideally decided by the entire trade negotiations committee (TNC) which has representation from the entire membership and is chaired by the WTO director general. "We don't want the director general to decide the agenda on his own,' a source said. There is a need to discuss in greater details the flexibilities to be given to developing countries in the area of fishery subsidies to protect the livelihood of poor fishermen. India, China and Indonesia have submitted a joint paper to the World Trade Organisation on removing the stringent conditions mentioned in the draft proposal for allowing fishermen in developing countries to have access to government subsidies. The issue of amending Trips to incorporate disclosure norms, wherein a patent applicants has to disclose the origin of the product and also share benefits with the country of origin, is also being pushed by India. "There are as many as 100 members of the World Trade Organisation saying that this issue should be included in the discussions. If the issues are not put on the table now, they will be sidelined,' the source said. A mini-ministerial is a formal meeting of a handful of trade ministers who represent various groups. If progress is reported in the mini-ministerial, the areas of convergence are discussed by the entire membership to get everybody's endorsement. It is hoped that the mini-ministerial will result in a breakthrough in tricky issues holding up the Doha round of talks such as the flexibilities to be given to the developing countries in both agriculture and Nama negotiations and the reduction in trade distorting subsidies in agriculture given by developed countries, especially the United States. Pascal Lamy: FAR FROM CONSENSUS