New Delhi : Hoping for a ‘constructive’ movement in the WTO in 2017, India wants the world trade body to do a “solid work” in the new year on demands such as easing of trade norms in the services sector and early conclusion of the Doha Round.
“I hope to see that the movement in WTO is more constructive (in 2017) because next year-end, we are going to have the Ministerial meet in Argentina. “And hopefully by then, the WTO comes out with some constructive and solid work for countries like India which have definitely set their demands before the WTO,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told PTI.
Besides demanding a permanent solution to the food security issue and protection to farmers from sudden surge in imports, India has floated a concept note on trade facilitation agreement (TFA) in services, reports PTI.
The country wants members of the WTO to agree on a proposal similar to that of TFA in goods, which was signed in 2014. The concept note aims at reducing transaction costs by doing away with unnecessary regulatory and administrative burden on trade in services.
As services sector contributes about 60 per cent to the India’s economy and 28 per cent to the total employment, New Delhi wants the WTO to negotiate a pact that is pertinent to facilitate trade in services, such as transparency, streamlining procedures, and eliminating bottlenecks.
Trade experts too expect that India would take a proactive position on services negotiations in 2017. Through that note, “India is possibly seeking to get the multilateral negotiations on trade in services back on track,” Biswajit Dhar, Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.
He said that these negotiations, being held as a part of the Doha negotiations, have been effectively stalled, especially because of the multilateral negotiations – Trade in Services Negotiations (TiSA). “Given the present dynamics of services negotiations in the WTO, it would be interesting to see whether India’s submissions evoke any interest among the countries negotiating TiSA. A larger issue of interest would be whether India would be able to provide the much needed momentum to the multilateral negotiations on services,” he added.
