Piyush Goyal to discuss WTO, digital trade at G20 meet

New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal will discuss developments in the global trade situation, matters related to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and digital trade at the G20 ministerial meeting on Trade and Digital Economy on June 8-9 in Japan. This is Goyal’s first visit abroad after assuming charge of the ministry. He is also India’s minister for railways.

“Commerce minister will hold bilateral meetings on the side lines of G20 in order to sensitize India’s core interests in trade and investment issues and build coalition with like minded countries for defending the interests of developing countries,” commerce and industry ministry said in a release on Thursday.

The G20 trade ministers’ deliberations will form part of the G20 Summit Leaders agenda in the formal discussions and also be a part of the Summit Declaration. Although there are no binding commitments in G20, it sets the agenda for multilateral trade relations. The G20 members represent two-thirds of the world’s people and 85% of its economy.


“For the first time, ministers of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Commerce will participate in a joint session on Digital Economy at the G20 Ministerial Meeting,” the ministry said in the release.

The Trade and Digital Economy meeting is one of the eight ministerial meetings taking place in Japan alongside the 2019 G20 Summit. The other seven ministerial meetings are those on foreign affairs; agriculture; finance ministers and central bank governors; labour and employment; tourism; health; and energy transitions and global environment for sustainable growth.