So, the gain in access to the US market for India's shrimp exports correspondingly means that pressure will build up on India to dismantle quantitative restrictions on imports covering roughly 2,400 tariff items. These restrictions have been imposed on BoP considerations.

India wants time to phase these out (starting 1997) in seven years ending 2004. But the US has filed a dispute in this regard with the WTO to press for a big-bang removal of curbs.

While India is all for opening up of imports, it is genuinely worried that exports endemically fall short of imports. On the BoP count, India is not out of the woods. A quick opening up of imports could boost the import bill and slow down foreign investment, which is coming in to jump theprotectionist wall. India is stalling US pressure while taking a negotiating stance before the WTO.

India does not have a pro-active policy on WTO-related issues. It has decided to join the Paris convention for the protection of intellectual property and the patent co-operation treaty. Patents in one country are binding on all signatories to the convention, including India. This is part of TRIPS, and apparently six bills in this regard are to be presented before Parliament this December.

News of the proposed bills has come from World Intellectual Property Organisation. Little is known about them in this country. The government is only responding to pressure. It has been forced by WTO to accept the mail box facility for patent applications by April next.

But how are Indian patents to be protected? The issue of gaining market access abroad in tandem with granting market access requires filing schedules in respect of 12 major sectors and 161 subsectors. These have yet to be identified to press bargaining.Reduction of domestic support and export subsidies for agricultural goods will come before WTO in 2000: how does India propose to tackle the US and Europe on this issue?

It is high time the government took a hard-headed view on the threats and opportunities provided by the WTO agenda on trade and intellectual property. It needs a high-powered think thank comprising experts in science and technology, economics and international law to get its brief right. Reliance on bureaucrats will not do. Interacting with WTO requires political initiative and negotiating skill, which must go beyond stalling tactics.