India, China raise concerns over selection of new issues in WTO

NAIROBI: The second day of the WTO’s tenth ministerial started with strong statements from trade ministers of India and China who said the reform process of the organisation was in peril and it would be a retrograde move if it were to be absent from the development agenda.

Indian commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday stated the country’s disappointment at the “manner and haste with which issues are being taken up selectively to suit a few”, while Chinese trade minister Gao Hucheng bluntly said: “How can we negotiate new issues if we cannot find solutions to the agriculture issues?”

An official aware of the negotiations said that the 162-member WTO is fragmented on the question of new issues as there are many of them.
India and China have joined hands in their fight against the developed countries’ efforts to end the Doha Round and issued a joint ministerial statement along with 45 other countries “with the purpose of strengthening the multilateral trading system and ensuring that development is at the centre of the ongoing negotiation”.

“WTO must not be absent from the development agenda... This would be myopia, irresponsibility but also retrograde,” the Chinese minister said, citing lack of firm conviction as the biggest enemy while resolving such issues.

However, both Hucheng and Sitharaman praised the WTO for having achieved its first multilateral trade agreement in the form of Trade Facilitation Agreement, or TFA.

“We all welcome the TFA but equally important is the general council decisions on public stockholding of food security purposes. The G-33 has suggested a special safeguards mechanism. It is regrettable that these issues are being pushed into the future while others being brought to forefront,” Sitharaman said.

SERVICES TRADE
For the first time, India mentioned liberalisation of services trade in the ongoing talks by asking WTO to give due importance to Mode 1 and Mode 4 services.

“The liberalisation of services trade, particularly in Modes 1 and 4, needs to figure high on the development agenda. A special initiative on services sector is needed. To achieve this, it is imperative to put in place a simple and transparent regulatory framework that encourages growth in the services sectors,” Sitharaman said in her address.

Mode 1 services relate to cross border trade between WTO member countries and Mode 4 refers to movement of natural persons.