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Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:36:52 -0000
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Subject: Murasoli Maran at Doha - Wall Street Journal
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Wall St. Journal:
November 18, 2001
Dow Jones Newswires
AWSJ(11/19) Indian Minister Rattles WTO
By RASUL BAILAY and JESSE PESTA
Staff Reporters
NEW DELHI -- Murasoli Maran used to write movie screenplays. Last
week, as India's commerce and industry minister, he scripted a
thriller.
Mr. Maran's tactics in pressing India's demands at the World Trade
Organization meeting in Qatar nearly scuttled prospects for a new
round of global trade talks. He helped force an unplanned burst of
overnight negotiating and was instrumental in winning concessions for
developing countries. It's characteristic of the hard-nosed Mr.
Maran, an avid free-market proponent.
Mr. Maran "throws his cards fast," says S.K. Saraf, head of
Federation of Indian Export Organizations. "He is a very tough guy."
His tactics didn't clinch India's long-term goal of greater access to
the U.S. textile market, but developing nations did win important
concessions at Qatar, including pledges to phase out farm subsidies
and limit use of antidumping laws.
Most significantly for India, developed countries also agreed to
elevate the rights of poor countries seeking cheap medicines above
the rights of international drug companies seeking to protect their
patents. India has a vast and thriving drug industry, but it is built
on the practice of knocking off patented Western drugs since Indian
law doesn't recognize drug-product patents.
Still, not everyone here is satisfied. The Doha agreement will give
the world's least-developed countries 10 extra years until 2016 to
comply with a key patent agreement known as Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights, or Trips, says Yusuf Hamied, chairman
of Cipla Ltd., an Indian drug company leading the effort to bring
affordable, knockoff versions of patented AIDS medications to poor
countries.
However, Mr. Hamied says, India doesn't get the benefit of a similar
reprieve, despite being among the poorest nations. "This has upset me
to no end," he says. Under terms of previous WTO pacts, India faces a
deadline in 2005 to start honoring drug-product patents. "If I can't
produce after 2005, then who am I going to supply to?" Mr. Hamied
says. The situation may force companies like his to build facilities
in other poor countries, he says.
Mr. Maran studied law in Madras, the capital of his home state, Tamil
Nadu, in southern India. For a time he was a journalist, editing a
political daily, Murasoli, which means "drum beat" in the Tamil
language. He later adopted the word as his first name. He has written
screenplays and dialogue for more than 20 films in India's vast Tamil-
language film industry, according to his government Web site. He has
also produced and directed.
Now 67 years old, Mr. Maran began his political career in the 1960s,
when he was elected to Parliament from Tamil Nadu. Named to his
current cabinet post in 1996, he quickly established reformist
credentials; in just a few months he cleared a backlog of more than
$3 billion in foreign-investment proposals, streamlining the proposal
process, and introducing transparency. His own leftist coalition
partners in the federal government have criticized Mr. Maran as too
liberal toward multinationals.
In 1997, however, he took on one of India's highest-profile foreign
investors, Suzuki Motor Corp., which owns 50% of India's largest auto
maker, Maruti Udyog Ltd. The Indian government owns the other half,
and under an unusual power-sharing agreement the two sides take turns
naming Maruti's leadership every five years. In 1997 it was India's
turn, but Suzuki objected to the choice, spawning a bitter and highly
public row over the nominee's suitability to manage the company. Mr.
Maran led the battle for the Indian side, at one point inviting
Suzuki to pull out of the venture. The feud was settled only when
India suddenly suffered a change of governments and the new
administration acquiesced to Suzuki.
But Mr. Maran's stance is remembered approvingly. "There are certain
things ministers do, which they should be doing," says Surjit Bhalla,
a fund manager in New Delhi and former World Bank economist. "If
you're an owner, you should be playing hardball."
As recently as August, Mr. Maran said he didn't favor a new round of
global trade negotiations unless the world's rich countries first
lived up to the terms of previous rounds. Wealthy nations have "not
kept up the promise" of the Uruguay Round of WTO talks in the early
1990s, he said in an interview at the time, particularly in relation
to opening their markets to agricultural goods and textiles.
Nevertheless, Mr. Maran "never had any intention of blocking" a new
round of talks, says Mr. Bhalla, the fund manager and economist. It
was "purely part of his negotiation strategy."
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URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-20011118-
000465.djm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from an earlier article in Wall Street Journal:
Poor Nations Win Gains in Global Trade Deal, as US Compromises
In New Climate, COncessions on Tariffs, Drug Patents; India Holds Out
to End;
Delegates Sleep in Hall
By HELENE COOPER and GEOFF WINESTOCK
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
........The Man to See
India's Mr. Maran became the man to see at Doha, frustrating U.S. and
European efforts to get an agreement. He spent the first five days
refusing to negotiate and the last day threatening to walk out of the
talks. Before cutting a final deal, Indian delegates used every
argument they could muster -- from chiding Europe for its legacy of
colonialism to charging the U.S. with superpower arm twisting.
India's last stand involved pushing back the start of talks on
foreign investment and antitrust policy by two years, to 2007 rather
than 2005. The extra years would give India more time to ease
restrictions on foreign investment in India's protected markets, such
as insurance and autos. But the compromise language on investment was
so dense and filled with so many loopholes it will almost certainly
be subject to differing interpretations later. Negotiations on other
subjects, such as tariff reductions and agriculture, will begin
immediately.
Mr. Maran's strong stance in Doha was in part the result of the
severe political pressure being exerted on his government back home.
Last weekend, some 25,000 protesters marched in the streets of New
Delhi to oppose the WTO negotiations under way here.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday, a small group of trade ministers called Mr.
Maran into a private room. Kenyan Trade Minister Kipyator Biwott
attacked Mr. Maran for throwing the landmark deal on patents into
jeopardy. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick suggested Mr.
Maran have a telephone call with President Bush to discuss his
concerns. Instead, according to someone present, Mr. Maran went out
into the corridor and called New Delhi on his cell phone.
'I Intimidated Them'
It was 6:45 p.m. Wednesday night when Mr. Maran finally announced at
what was supposed to be a largely ceremonial closing meeting at the
Doha convention center: "India is supporting the text," he said.
Envoys erupted into cheers. Afterwards, Mr. Maran appeared before
journalists brandishing a copy of the text. "I intimidated them," he
said. ......................
