Explore Business Standard
WTO
China has said it would no longer seek the special treatment given to developing countries in World Trade Organisation agreements a change long demanded by the United States. Commerce Ministry officials on Wednesday said the move was an attempt to boost the global trading system at a time when it is under threat from tariff wars and protectionist moves by individual countries to restrict imports. They did not mention the United States by name or President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on many other countries this year, including China. The US has long argued China should give up the developing-country status because it is the world's second-largest economy. The advantages of that designation at the WTO include lower requirements to open their markets to imports and longer transition periods to implement such market-opening steps. The WTO provides a forum for global trade talks and enforces agreements but has become less effective, prompting calls for reform. The head of th
A World Trade Organisation agreement aimed at reducing overfishing took effect Monday, requiring countries to reduce subsidies doled out to fishing fleets and aiming to ensure sustainability of wildlife in the world's seas and oceans. Following a string of national approvals more than three years after its adoption, the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is designed to help limit the depletion of fish stocks caused by excessive fishing. The Geneva-based trade body touts the deal as its first focusing on the environment, and the first broad and binding multilateral agreement on ocean sustainability. The deal, championed by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, formally took effect on Monday after four more countries Brazil, Kenya, Tonga and Vietnam adopted it. The approvals mean 112 countries are on board, clearing by one country the requirement that at least two-thirds of WTO's 166 members give formal acceptance. China, the United States, and the European Union's 27-member
India on Tuesday sought consultations with the US under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) safeguard agreement over 50 per cent tariffs imposed on certain copper products by America. This move comes after India reserved the right to impose retaliatory duties on select US products in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminium; and auto components. On July 30 this year, the US adopted a measure in the form of 50 per cent tariff on all imports of certain copper products. The measure applies from August 1 this year and for an unlimited duration. "India considers that the measure, although claimed to be taken for security interests, are, in essence, a safeguard measure," a WTO communication said. The communication is being circulated at the request of the delegation of India. It said that the US failed to notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards on taking a decision to apply the safeguard measure. "Accordingly, as an affected member with significant export interest to the Un
World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Tuesday urged India to support the China-led proposal on investment facilitation for development as several developing countries are backing the initiative. The Director General of the Geneva-based body said she discussed several issues like WTO reforms and agriculture with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. The Indian minister is here on an official visit. "We need India as a leader. India is a leading country, and India is doing well. So, India needs to open the way for other developing countries, for example, on investment facilitation for development, we want it to support, because so many developing countries - 90 out of the 126 who are members, would like to move with this," she told reporters here. But for agriculture, "we also need" to listen to what India's issues are and try to be supportive. A China-led group of 128 countries is pushing for the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) proposal.
India's import duties are in compliance with the global trade rules and the government should convey this to the US administration, economic think tank GTRI said on Sunday. It also said that negotiating a comprehensive free trade agreement with the US presents several challenges. The US may push India to open government procurement to American firms, reduce agricultural subsidies, weaken patent protections by allowing evergreening, and remove restrictions on data flows, it said, adding India has resisted these demands for decades and is still not prepared to accept. US President Donald Trump on multiple occasions have alleged that India has high tariffs and termed it "tariff king" and "tariff abuser". Tariffs are import duties imposed and collected by the government and paid by companies to bring foreign goods into the country. "India's tariffs are consistent with WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules. "They are the result of a single undertaking at the WTO which all countries ...