At the 9th review of the US trade policy regime, many members -- China, Norway, Thailand, the European Union, among others -- sharply criticised Washington for not adopting WTO-consistent policies in several areas.
Fernando de Mateo, the chairman of the WTO Council for Trade in Services, released the report on services on Monday. The report asks member countries to commit to providing market access in sectors where many trade barriers exist. Draft texts on agriculture and non-agriculture market access have already been released.
The developing world including India had opposed the Doha Agriculture text as the developed countries had not matched the major concessions announced by the developing nations in the earlier rounds of WTO negotiations. In the Doha round, it was accepted that developed nations would need to make some contribution by reducing agricultural subsidies and providing greater market access.
While the Trump administration wants India to lower the trade barriers and embrace "fair and reciprocal" trade, India has raised tariffs on 28 items exported from the US in retaliation to America's withdrawal of preferential access for Indian products.
In the second major decision to end the UPA government's legacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday scrapped four cabinet committees, including one on Unique Identification Authority, as part of his efforts to minimise decision-making processes.
The WTO Appellate Body on Monday held that China was obstructing trade by forcing foreign suppliers to distribute certain copyright-intensive products through state-owned companies which is inconsistent with the Beijings obligations with the WTO.
India has not changed its position on agriculture and industry at the World Trade Organisation negotiations on freeing global trade to protect the interests of its farmers and small enterprises, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said.
No other country can match the uncanny knack of the United States in pushing its agenda for trade negotiations. Recent inclusion of issues like remanufacturing into current WTO negotiations is a case in point.
Rejecting the suggestion that India is taking a difficult stand in the World Trade Organisation talks, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said New Delhi only wants a multilateral trading system that corrects the existing structural flaws.
Meeting will confine discussion to processes involved in building consensus among members.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will begin his two-day visit to the United States on Wednesday with a tour of Silicon Valley, as Moscow seeks to build a similar centre for an innovative modernisation of its economy.
The secretariat of the Geneva-based global trade body planned to increase Lamy's annual pay by 20 to 30 per cent from around 500,000 Swiss francs ($468,000) at present and proposed the raise at an informal committee meeting in early July to discuss budgetary and other issues, Kyodo news agency quoted trade sources as saying.
To the chorus of the usual suspect television news brigade in New Delhi, Pakistan seems to have launched a 'Peace Offensive' of sorts vis a vis India. After a delay of 15 years it now wants to reciprocate by granting the Most Favoured Nation status to India for trade. For the uninitiated, MFN is an obligation under the World Trade Organisation regime.
Check out the new schedule for the CA exams held by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
At the World Bank Banga will be replacing David Malpass, a former Trump treasury official, reports axios.com. Malpass had already announced that he will resign by July, months ahead of his term expired. "Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history," President Biden said in a statement. Banga, 63, currently serves as vice chairman at General Atlantic.
In a significant move to make the World Trade Organisations trade negotiations to meet the July-end deadline for a Framework Agreement, Trade Ministers of Non-Group 5 including India are meeting in Paris from July10-11.
There 'appears to be a conscious policy to create unfair preferences for Chinese industries by making raw materials cheaper for China's companies to get, and goods more economical for them to produce, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Tuesday. The European Union has filed a similar complaint with the WTO.
India plans to cut transaction costs for exporters and ensure the availability of dollar finance, as it looks to reverse a decline in exports and double outbound sales of goods and services over the next five years.
India will be represented by Union Divestment Minister Arun Shourie in the informal World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting convened by US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick
India has made it clear that it will not relinquish the leverage on agriculture and NAMA until a services deal is finalised by the WTO.
In a significant development, Asian economic giants India and China have decided to coordinate positions on contentious trade and investment issues like agriculture, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights and public health and investment.
'If attacks escalate, there is a risk the Suez Canal may be closed.'
The prime minister said that developing countries should get a fair deal at the tough WTO negotiations at Geneva
The World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting broke the 'impasse' over resumption of Doha Round of talks, with 35 trade ministers agreeing to take forward negotiations from where they left in Geneva in July last year.
India has jumped five places to become the world's 11th biggest exporter of commercial services in 2005, and inched one step ahead to the 29th rank among the largest merchandise exporters, according to the latest statistics by WTO.
George Perkovich, vice president, studies, and director, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that with the United States-India nuclear deal in limbo, the lack of convergence between Washington and New Delhi on Iran, climate change, the World Trade Organisation, and stagnation of defence cooperation, the US-India relationship has indeed been oversold.
There is a need to have a balance in these negotiations so that environment friendly products from developing countries also get improved market access
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said India remains on the side of peace.
The World Trade Organisation agreed on Monday to an Indian demand for a probe into special trade deals granted by the European Union to countries fighting drug trafficking.
India's chief trade negotiator Rahul Khullar yesterday warned that the much-planned ministerial meeting, which the World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy wants to convene soon, can succeed only if there was a revised Doha Rules text reflecting the concerns of all the members and an immediate resolution of TRIPS-CBD issue.
Joseph Stiglitz accuses the US of negotiating over issues already settled at the World Trade Organization.
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