India fights hard to retain special benefits received as developing country member

Even as India tries to keep alive multilateralism in global trade practices, it is fighting hard to retain the special provisions it enjoys as a developing country member of the World Trade Organization.

If the US and the EU were the ones that have until now hinted at the need to curtail the special and differential (S&D) facility for developing countries, now even the least developed countries (LDCs) are challenging this flexibility.

A group of more than 70 LDCs and developing countries have proposed separate S&D guidelines for the two kinds of nations. The G-90 proposal asks for stricter notification requirements for developing countries compared with LDCs or those developing countries that face capacity constraints.


The issue of separate disciplines for India came up for discussion at an informal meeting of negotiators on Saturday, a day before a four-day ministerial conference of the WTO started here. “LDCs are not sure if they want us to be part of the S&D provisions,” said an Indian official aware of the development.

WTO agreements contain special provisions which give developing countries special rights and developed countries the possibility to treat developing countries more favourably than other WTO members.

These special provisions include longer time periods for implementing agreements and commitments or measures to increase trading opportunities for developing countries.

They also ensure provisions requiring all WTO members to safeguard the trade interests of developing countries besides the support to help developing countries build the capacity to carry out WTO work, handle disputes and implement technical standards.

“Retaining the Doha round is important and countries are questioning about our S&D provisions," the official added.

These provisions are aimed at helping poor farmers in developing countries through subsidies and, according to experts, the latest move is a cause of worry. “They are going beyond the mandate of the WTO by rewriting its basic principles," said Biswajit Dhar, a professor at JNU.

In the Doha Declaration, members agreed that all S&D provisions are an integral part of the WTO agreements, and should be reviewed.