India raises overuse of unilateral trade protectionist measures at WTO

In the session on sustainable development and policy space for industrialisation, India explained that it has put forward and propagated a sustainable way of living based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation, including through a mass movement for ‘Life Style for Environment’ (LiFE) as a key to combating climate change.

India asserted that developing countries seek appropriate policy space to find solutions to their concerns, some of which have been unaddressed for a long time, a release from the Indian commerce ministry said.

It expressed concerns on the concerted attempt to club long standing development issues like policy space for industrial development with the new issues of trade and industrial policy.

Developing countries need flexibility in the existing WTO agreements to overcome the constraints faced by them in their industrialisation, it noted.

The Indian delegation was led by commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal on the opening day.

In the second session on trade and inclusion, India highlighted the need for avoiding fragmentation of the multilateral trading system and the importance of remaining focused rather than mix non-trade issues with the WTO agenda.

Bringing issues like gender and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the realm of WTO discussions was not practical because these issues are already being discussed in other relevant international organisations already, India noted.

The country stressed that issues like inclusion are better addressed through contextual and targeted national measure and they did not fall in the domain of international trade relations.

India also stressed that non-trade issues have the potential to encourage trade distortive subsidies and non-trade barriers.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)