Surrender at Singapore

ONCE again, despite its prior protestations to the contrary, the government of India has caved in to pressure at international economic negotiations. The Indian delegation to the Singapore WTO Ministerial Meeting has come back having conceded much that it had earlier sworn to defend, and having got virtually nothing in return. Thedeveloped industrial countries, led by the US and supported by the European Union, were successful in most of their aims in terms of pushing their own agenda, and developing countries were either bought off by side agreements (such as the Information Technology Agreement) or simply pressurised to fall into line.