RSS economic wing calls for India 'dumping' WTO, TRIPS amid Trump's tariffs

As echoes around implications of Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs surge, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) economic wing Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has said that his move is in total disregard of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and India should also do the same to prioritise its profits, reported The Hindu.

 

Swadeshi Jagaran Manch’s (SJM) economist and co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan further remarked that India should also ‘dump’ the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

 

What is TRIPS? 

The TRIPS Agreement is a WTO framework that sets minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property rights like patents, copyrights, and trademarks. It aims to harmonise global IP laws, though it's often criticized for favouring developed nations and restricting access to affordable medicines in poorer countries.

 

A costly commitment

In view of the same, Mahajan,who is also a professor of Economics at Delhi University, told The Hindu that India bears a huge cost because of these agreements and now the US seems to be increasingly ignoring them.

 

 

“What we see is a total disregard of the WTO. We signed WTO, and we were given higher bound tariffs for the reason that we had accepted, the TRIPS, TRIMS (Trade-Related Investment Measures), services and agriculture in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the agreement on TRIPS had cost us heavily in terms of outgo of royalty. We have approximately gone from negligible amount of royalty to $17 billion dollars plus,” he told the news daily.

 

Further adding to it, Mahajan said that India can also disregard WTO and dump TRIPS. “Maybe it’s too early to say this, but if WTO doesn’t exist, then why should TRIPS? TRIPS, as an agreement, is inhuman. For example, we had pleaded with developed countries to keep medications for Covid outside of TRIPS but they did not agree,” he said, as quoted by The Hindu.

 

He went on to argue that the TRIPS has largely been about protecting profits for the West at the cost of humanitarian needs in developing countries. He questioned why India should continue to uphold TRIPS when the WTO’s effectiveness is in question, suggesting that India might consider dumping the agreement entirely.

 

Earlier this week, in a conversation with the Business Standard, Mahajan said, "When the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements were being inked, even then, the SJM believed that instead of multilateral agreements, we should pursue bilateral agreements. We were against multilateral agreements like the WTO for various reasons, including TRIPS, TRIMS, and agreements on services and agriculture, as they endangered public health, farmers’ welfare, and our sovereign right to make laws."

 

The bigger picture is that the WTO is finished; its implications would be that TRIPS will be gone. @bsindia @ArchisMohan @indivjal pic.twitter.com/ov98JXJvPV

— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) April 1, 2025

India’s strategic edge

However, amid the scathing criticism, Mahajan also believes that there is some ‘silver lining’ in the play for India as far as Trump’s tariffs are concerned. “If we look at the list of countries tariff-wise, our number comes at 19th, and China is 11th, I believe. There is a difference of around 8 per cent between India and China. So [between] India and China, who are the main competitors so far as the US markets are concerned — may it be chemicals or other kinds of products, and despite the fact that Indian industries have not been able to compete in India, but they compete in US — we may get a relative advantage,” he said.

 

He further explained that there is a ‘silver lining’ in difference in tariff rates between the two countries as it could offer India a competitive edge in US markets.

Meanwhile, Mahajan also believes that in view of the tariffs imposed, India should make efforts to protect agriculture, dairy and small scale industries.

However, Mahajan urged caution, particularly in sectors like agriculture, dairy, and small-scale industries, which could be vulnerable to shifts in market access due to the tariffs. He stressed the importance of protecting these sectors, as they are crucial for India’s livelihood and self-sufficiency.

He also noted that, unless India imposes retaliatory tariffs, the impact on domestic prices will likely remain minimal. 

 

In regard to the much talked about India-US bilateral agreement, Mahajan said that he feels engaging with the US is important, but I don’t think the government is in a great hurry to sign the BTA.