Stakeholder Consultation Workshop titled “Pre WTO Hong Kong Ministerial
Meeting Consultation : Identifying India’s Core Concerns”, 28-29 November
2005, New Delhi.

We are pleased to inform you that the Department of Commerce, Government of
India and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) India
Project are jointly organizing a stakeholder consultation workshop titled
“Pre WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting Consultation Workshop: Identifying
India’s Core Concerns”. While this meeting was earlier scheduled to be held
on 18-19 November 2005, it has now been rescheduled to be held on 28-29
November 2005. Inconvenience caused to you is regretted. The venue of the
meeting is Hotel Taj Mahal (Diwan-i-am), Man Singh Road, New Delhi. The draft
agenda of the meeting is attached.

The stakeholder consultation workshop would discuss issues relating to WTO
negotiations on Agriculture, Non-Agricultural Market Access, Services and
Environment. We plan to bring together representatives of civil society,
consumer organizations, industry representatives, experts and policy makers
involved with this field. The objective of the meeting would be to provide a
broad perspective in various areas of negotiations and in a sense this is a
concluding meeting prior to the Hong Kong Ministerial, bringing together
statements from different civil society meetings which have been held
throughout the year on WTO issues. During the consultation workshop we would
provide about 5 minutes to each civil society organisation, which has held
meetings at the state/local level on issues relating to WTO negotiations, to
present the views expressed in these meetings. We expect that this would lead
to identification of India’s core concerns in different areas of WTO
negotiations.

In case you have held meetings on WTO issues at state and local level and are
desirous of making a brief presentation during the forthcoming stakeholder
consultation workshop, we would be grateful if you could send us a report of
the meetings organised by you. The report should include the concerns raised,
list of participants, date and venue of the meeting. (It may be noted that
UNCTAD has separately sought the report through an advertisement published in
leading newspapers on 17 November 2005). Please confirm your participation in
the forthcoming stakeholder consultation workshop on 28-29 November 2005 and
send the report of state/ local level meetings along with your particulars
(such as Name, Designation, Organisation, Email Address, Postal Address, Fax
Number, Phone Number and brief Profile/Bio-Data) to Ms. Celine Fernandes,
UNCTAD, Email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , Ph: +91-11-24635036/54/55
(Extn.11) , Fax: +91-11-24635000 by 23 November 2005.

Preference for interventions during the stakeholder consultation workshop
would be given to those organisations which have organised meetings on WTO
issues at state/ local level and have sent us the report of these meetings.
You are welcome to attend the forthcoming stakeholder consultation workshop
even if you have not been involved in organising state/ local level meetings.
Please confirm your desire to attend the stakeholder consultation workshop to
Ms. Celine Fernandes, UNCTAD. We would also be thankful if you could
circulate this invitation to other stakeholders who may have an interest in
participating in the consultation workshop or could provide inputs for the
meeting.

With kind regards,
Dr. Veena Jha
Coordinator,
UNCTAD India Programme