Ever since Donald Trump took charge as US President, he has made systematic efforts to demolish the very foundation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which is at the centre of ‘free’ and ‘fair’ trade based on transparent and non-discriminatory rules. At the 11th WTO ministerial conference held in Buenos Aires in December 2017, the US rejected the demand of developing countries to find a “permanent solution” to stockholding for food security which was agreed to four years ago at the 9th ministerial in Bali. Worse, it has dumped the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), which has been assiduously pursued by all members of WTO since 2001. Second, in complete defiance of rules under WTO, it has hiked import duty on...
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Category: Agreement on Industrial Trade (AoIT)
Rule based global trade – are there any takers?
The 11th WTO [World Trade Organization] ministerial conference held in Buenos Aires during December 10-13, 2017 had ended up in a fiasco as there was not even a customary declaration not to talk of specific mandate/work program to take things forward. Meanwhile, Indian commerce minister, Suresh Prabhu held an informal meeting of the members of the WTO in New Delhi on March 19-20, 2018 [delegates from as many as 52 countries, including the US and China participated] to “find ways to identify common ground for strengthening and re-invigorating the Organization”. Even as these efforts go on to ensure that WTO stays relevant, Donald Trump is leaving no stone un-turned in demolishing the very foundation of this multilateral body. In Buenos Aires,...
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Leverage WTO GPA for ‘Make In India’
Recently, minister for power, coal, new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal commented “when foreign countries such as China, USA do not allow Indian companies to bid for power projects in their jurisdiction, why should we allow their companies to participate in setting up of similar projects in India”. The minister was venting out his frustration over companies from those countries denting the prospects of our flagship program ‘Make In India’ by supplying plant and machinery thereby scuttling growth of indigenous industry. He was also lamenting at our own policy which gives a level playing field to global vendors while tendering for government procurement. In India, the procedures of government procurement, as outlined in India’s General Financial Rules [GFR], provide for...
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New visa regime to hit growth, competitiveness of US firms
A senior official of the Trump administration has lambasted three leading Indian information technology companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Cognizant Technologies — for resorting to ‘trickery’ for allegedly grabbing most of H1-B visas issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The H1-B visas are issued to foreigners who have ‘theoretical’ and ‘technical’ expertise in specialised areas to work in local (read American) companies for a temporary period. The US issues 85,000 such visas every year — 65,000 hired from abroad and 20,000 from those enrolled in the US universities/colleges. Due to the heavy demand, the USCIS which runs the programme, receives several times more applications than it can grant and uses an electronic lottery to...
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Can India survive Trump’s bombshell?
The republican candidate, Donald Trump has been elected by Americans on the promise of protecting their interests and doing all that is necessary to achieve this goal. All along, USA has been a strong protagonist of free flow of international trade and investment in goods and services and accordingly championed liberal policies to foster this [sans a tinge of protectionism in specific areas such as agriculture]. India has benefited hugely from such open policy stance. Now, if Trump were to act on his electoral pronouncements, this will tantamount to a drastic reversal of extant policy stance. It will herald an era of ‘protectionism’ adversely affecting developing countries like India which derive a good slice of its income by doing business...
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