Indian Economy News

Consensus-based decision-making remains central to WTO legitimacy, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Mr. Piyush Goyal at WTO MC14

India reinforced its commitment to a transparent, inclusive, and member-driven reform process in the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Yaounde, Cameroon, with Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Mr. Piyush Goyal stating, “Consensus-based decision-making is the bedrock of WTO’s legitimacy.” India asserted that the WTO should continue to respect the sovereign right of every member to not bind itself to those obligations which it does not agree to, to build trust in the multilateral trading system. The minister stated that the current reform process should commence with a stocktaking of the institutional impasse and the causes of such an impasse, with an open, transparent, and development-oriented approach. It was asserted that the process of fragmentation through plurilateral approaches would undermine the integrated multilateral framework, which has provided a platform for balanced participation of developing economies in the multilateral system.

Regarding broader reform issues, India’s delegation stressed the importance of addressing the asymmetrical results of the Uruguay Round by prioritizing the resolution of outstanding issues such as public stockholding for food security, special safeguard mechanisms, and cotton issues before creating new negotiating tracks. The delegation also raised the issue of the ineffectiveness of the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism and stressed that weaker adjudication is detrimental to the interests of smaller and developing countries in the world. The delegation highlighted that the role of the WTO’s committees should be strengthened to rebuild support through bottom-up approaches and practical inputs. During the meeting, Mr. Piyush Goyal also engaged in bilateral talks with other leading countries, including the US, China, Korea, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada, indicating India’s commitment to not only multilateral but also bilateral trade cooperation through a fair and equitable rules-based system.

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