As many as 76 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) — nearly half the WTO’s membership — have begun a process of framing rules governing cross-border e-commerce. The initiative is being spearheaded by the United States, China, the European Union and Japan — the four largest trading nations in the world economy — and has the tacit support of leading multinational companies (MNCs) in the e-commerce space such as Amazon, Walmart/Flipkart and Alibaba. India has strongly objected to the move. The objection stems primarily from an apprehension that in the event of India being a part of the negotiations, it will have to commit itself to harmonised WTO rules on e-commerce which will take away the ‘policy space’ currently...
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Category: WTO agreements
WTO talks on e-commerce – why India must join
As many as 76 members of the World Trade Organization [WTO] who constitute nearly half the WTO’s membership have begun a process of framing rules governing cross-border e-commerce. The initiative is being spearheaded by the United States, China, the European Union and Japan – the four largest trading nations – and has the tacit support of leading multinational companies [MNCs] viz Amazon,Walmart/Flipkart, Alibaba etc in the e-commerce market place. India has strongly objected to the above move ostensibly on the ground that the WTO being a multilateral body wherein all decisions regarding international trade and investment are taken by consensus involving all members, the agenda cannot be driven only by a section of the membership. This may be sheer posturing....
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With WTO in view, take up restructuring subsidy regime
There is trouble brewing for India at World Trade Organisation (WTO) – the multilateral body which binds member countries to a common set of rules with regard to trade in goods and services with ‘fairness’ and ‘non-discrimination’ as its underlying principles. To get a sense of where it is heading, let us put things in perspective. In May, 2018, in a hard hitting submission made to WTO Committee on Agriculture (CoA), the United States had lambasted India for indulging in substantial under-reporting of its market price support (MPS) programme for wheat and paddy farmers alleging that the sops given by government far exceed the permissible limit. This was a counter to the latter’s notification to WTO in March, 2018. Under...
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What if, India loses ‘developing’ tag at WTO
With elections underway, even as different political parties compete with each other to promise more subsidies, there is trouble brewing for India at World Trade Organization [WTO] – the multilateral body which binds member countries to a common set of rules with regard to trade in goods and services with ‘fairness’ and ‘non-discrimination’ as the underlying principles. In May, 2018, in a hard hitting submission made to WTO Committee on Agriculture [CoA], the United States had lambasted India for indulging in substantial under-reporting of its market price support [MPS] program for wheat and paddy farmers alleging that the sops given by government far exceed the permissible limit. This was a counter to the latter’s notification to WTO in March, 2018....
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Handling Trump’s trade googly
President, Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the over 5 decades old special dispensation viz. the Generalized System of Preferences [GSP] under which the USA imports goods mostly textiles from India at ‘zero’ customs duty. This would affect exports from India worth US$ 5.6 billion or about Rs 40,000 crore. The latest missive is in continuation of a series of actions taken against countries world-wide [including India] under his much hyped agenda of “Buy American, Hire American”. Some of these actions having far reaching ramifications include:- (i) rejecting the demand of developing countries for finding a ‘permanent solution’ to stock-holding for food security despite a decision to this effect at the 9th WTO ministerial held in Bali [2013]; (ii) dumping...
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RCEP – India can’t afford to miss
At the recently concluded ASEAN [Association of South East Asian Nations] Summit in Singapore [November 11-15, 2018], prime minister, N Modi called for early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] agreement to facilitate signing of the deal by early 2019. The RCEP is a conglomeration of the 10 members of ASEAN [Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia] plus 6 countries outside the group viz. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China and India. This will be a giant grouping covering a population of 3.6 billion or 50% of the world and GDP at US$ 25 trillion or nearly one-third of the global. Under Modi’s Act East policy with focus on promoting economic cooperation...
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Trump is hell-bent on decimating WTO
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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Trump is hell-bent on decimating WTO
Ever since, Donald Trump took charge, he has made systematic efforts to demolish the very foundation of World Trade Organization [WTO] which is the epitome of ‘free’ and ‘fair’ trade based on transparent and non-discriminatory rules. At the 11th WTO ministerial conference held in Buenos Aires during December 10-13, 2017, the USA rejected the demand of developing countries for finding a ‘permanent solution’ to stockholding for food security which was agreed to four years ago in the 9th ministerial held in Bali. Still worse, it has dumped the Doha Development Agenda [DDA] which has been assiduously pursued by all members of WTO ever since 2001. Second, in complete defiance of rules under WTO, it has hiked import duty on steel...
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Farm subsidies – India needs to rework strategy at WTO
In a hard hitting submission made to the WTO [World Trade Organization] Committee on Agriculture [CoA], the United States has castigated India for indulging in substantial under-reporting of its market price support [MPS] program for wheat and paddy farmers alleging that the sops given by the government far exceed the permissible limit. Under the Agreement on Agriculture [AoA], a developing member country cannot give aggregate measurement support [AMS] – WTO nomenclature for subsidies – in excess of 10% of the value of its agricultural production. The AMS includes ‘product-specific’ subsidies and ‘non-product specific’ viz. subsidies on agricultural inputs viz., fertilizers, seed, irrigation, electricity etc. The ‘product-specific’ subsidy is excess of minimum support price [MSP] paid to farmers over the external...
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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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