India proposes 8 guardrails in softening of stance on plurilateral pacts at WTO

New Delhi: In a softening of stance on plurilateral agreements at the World Trade Organization (WTO), India has suggested eight safeguards such as preserving consensus-based decision making, multilateral charter of the trade watchdog, rights and agency of non-participants, and maintaining development including special and differential treatment.

In a submission on guidelines on plurilateral initiatives, India said these “can provide greater predictability to proponents, enable non-participants to understand and protect their rights and interests; preserve attention to existing mandates and support confidence in the

WTO as a Member-driven, inclusive and development-oriented multilateral institution”. Such safeguards, as per New Delhi, can contribute to confidence building.


India has opposed plurilateral trade agreements, the ones which are negotiated and implemented by smaller groups rather than the entire WTO membership, stating that these agreements should remain exceptions, not the norm and instead be based on consensus.

The submission follows India’s statement during the 14th ministerial conference of the WTO in Cameroon in March when it said that necessary guardrails have to be in place before taking further the discussion on including plurilaterals into the framework of the organization.

“Such safeguards should cover the various stages of initiation, negotiation, conclusion and incorporation of plurilateral

agreements and their potential amendment. Members may also want to consider the legal form these safeguards may take in terms of their applicability to the WTO membership, India said Wednesday.

With reference to the challenges affecting multilateral outcomes, India said the reform discussions have pointed to “weakened trust, unfulfilled mandates, lack of progress on substantive issues of interest to developing Members, lack of inclusivity and non-implementation of Ministerial mandates prescribing making special and differential treatment precise, effective and operational”.

Ensuring transparency, meaningful engagement and Member-driven process, Preserving mandates and the multilateral agenda, Respecting institutional competence and scope of the WTO, and Appropriate use of WTO resources including WTO secretariat services.

“Plurilateral cooperation may serve particular purposes, but does not, by itself, address these substantive and institutional sources of difficulty,” it said.