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Mahesh

20/06/23 06:57 AM IST

India can lead multilateralism at WTO

In News
  • The recently concluded meeting of the G20 working group on trade and investment focused on the important issue of WTO reform.
WTO
  • It is a member-driven, consensus-based intergovernmental organisation that regulates and facilitates international trade between nations.
  • It is the world’s largest international economic organisation (HQ – Geneva, Switzerland), with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.
  • It officially began operations on January 1, 1995, in accordance with the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement.
  • It replaced the 1948 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Challenges for Developing nations
  • The presence of special and differential treatment (SDT) principles in WTO agreements.
  • SDT provisions give special rights to developing countries and obligate developed countries to treat the former more favourably.
  • The appellate body – the 2nd tier of the WTO’s two-tiered dispute settlement body – remains paralysed since 2019.
  • This is part of the US’s overall game plan to dilute the policing part of the WTO to pursue trade unilateralism without many checks.
  • There is a need to develop a multilateral governance framework for plurilateral agreements.
  • From 2017 onward, there has been a shift away from consensus-based decision-making principles toward plurilateral discussions on issues like investment facilitation.
  • It is imperative to address the transparency gap in the WTO.
  • Although WTO member countries are obliged to notify all their laws and regulations that affect trade, compliance with this obligation is poor.
Source- Indian Express

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