SJM hails India for blocking China-led investment facilitation pact at WTO

"It was a very significant step for world peace and India should be seen as a saviour for the way it was blocked," SJM added

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch on Monday hailed India's success in blocking a China-led investment facilitation pact in the recently concluded WTO ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi and said it was a "very significant" move for global peace.

Addressing a meeting organised here to discuss the outcomes of the WTO ministerial meet which concluded on March 1, Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said China, joined by more than 120 countries, had tried to push the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) as a plurilateral agreement at the meet.

"China's proposal was presented as if it was going to bring a big revolution in the world. But, its entire efforts to push the addition of IFDA at the 13th WTO ministerial meet collapsed like a pack of cards after India and South Africa took a firm stand against it," Mahajan said.

"It was a very significant step for world peace and India should be seen as a saviour for the way it was blocked," he added.

Mahajan said that after the Doklam standoff with China, India put certain conditions on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from all border-sharing countries, mandating government approval in place of the automatic route.

"This measure allowed India to restrict investments from a country with which it was in conflict. If IFDA were implemented, countries party to it might be deprived of their freedom to safeguard their respective interests, he said.

He said it was claimed that China's IFDA aimed to create legally binding rules for facilitating investment inflows.

China's proposal appeared to have sought to deprive sovereign nations of their right to regulate and monitor FDI in their respective territories in the garb of creating global standards for investment facilitation measures, he said.