40 countries invited for WTO mini-ministerial meet on Mar 19-20: Govt

India has invited over 40 countries for the WTO mini-ministerial meeting on March 19-20, Parliament was informed today.

In a reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, C R Chaudhary said India is hosting this meeting with the objective of facilitating an exchange of views on various issues and challenges relating to multilateral trading system.

"An informal WTO Ministerial gather is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on March 19-20, 2018... Over 40 countries have been invited for the meeting including both developed and developing countries," he said.

This would be the second mini-ministerial meeting being hosted by India. The first was in 2009.

In a separate reply to another question, Chaudhary said India's position in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is that negotiation on issues such as agriculture must be prioritised and concluded.

"India has also emphasised that development must remain central to the work of the WTO. As part of various developing country groups in the WTO, India's focus in the WTO is to protect the livelihood and food security interests of people in developing countries," he said.

India is a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system and has been working constructively with members of the WTO to ensure that multilateralism is strengthened through collaborative efforts, Chaudhary added.