In a major victory for India, Suppachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of World Trade Organization said on Friday that any deal to break the impasse in the contentious farm trade talks
The government is planning to approach the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organization against frequent seizure of Indian medicines at various European ports.
As the US fights China on issues of intellectual property at the World Trade Organization, India asked Washington on Friday to address the issue of easy availability of pirated Indian films and music in the American market.
India today asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) chief to explain how he arrived at the figure of $150 billion as "being the Doha Round's contribution to the global stimulus", a demand that was supported by the United States.
The high point of the trip will be Goyal's meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on November 13, which is expected to see the USTR push India towards lower import duties in a broad range of areas.
In days of smart, networked technology and no shame over collateral damage, what will blow up next -- cars, mobile phones, TV sets, refrigerators? And where?, asks Shyam G Menon.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said India will not "rush to" the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the "regressive" steps taken by the US recently, which include an increase in the visa fee and a special levy on foreign manufacturers.
India on Friday stood its ground against attempts to dilute the triggers in the Special Safeguard Mechanism to check unforeseen rise in imports of farm goods
Subdued demand from developed countries and blocs like the US and EU is impacting exports of key sectors including engineering, gems and jewellery and may have implications on India's exports in case the global situation does not improve in coming months. Global inflation, Russia-Ukraine war, simmering China-Taiwan crisis and supply disruptions are hurting economic growth worldwide, leading to poor demand, experts say. The world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow 3 per cent in 2022 against the earlier forecast of 4.7 per cent, mainly due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, according to the World Trade Organization forecast, released in April.
Even as the bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries remains hostile, there is growing coordination between India and Pakistan on one multilateral forum - the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both countries have made two joint submissions at the WTO as co-sponsors in the past two months. In June, Pakistan joined India, Cuba, and 44 African countries, seeking sufficient flexibility in intellectual property rights for developing countries to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several developing countries are expected to oppose a proposal by World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy to "freeze" the issues on which there is convergence within the Doha Development Agenda and resolve the outstanding issues, Business Standard was told.
In an interaction with a group of Indian journalists, the three-time prime minister and president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N described Jaishankar's visit as a "good opening" and said both sides should now engage and move forward.
'As the markets are expected to remain jittery in the near term, we advise investors to use this opportunity to enter quality largecaps from a long-term perspective.'
India has consistently demanded that about 8 per cent of farm tariff lines to be exempted from the tariff reduction commitments while 12 per cent of tariff lines to be subjected to a minimum cut below 10 per cent. The United States, Australia, Uruguay, Thailand and Malaysia, however, vehemently opposed India's demands during what are called the Walk in Woods meetings convened by the chair for Doha agriculture negotiations Ambassador Crawford Falconer last week.
A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel has dismissed the United States' complaint against India over the excise duties on foreign wines and spirits, according to sources.
The country has also asked India to further reduce tariffs on goods.
India resorted to 16 final anti-dumping measures in the first six months of this year compared to eight new measures by the European Union. During the same period, Indonesia took recourse to five final anti-dumping measures, followed by four each by Argentina, China and Ukraine, three each by Brazil and South Africa, and two each by the United States, Egypt and Korea, and one by Canada.
The world's No 2 venture capitalist says he supports outsourcing and urges India to use WTO rules to protect it from protectionist attacks in the US
The government on Friday came out with Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 which seeks to boost the country's exports to $2 trillion by 2030 by shifting from incentives to remission and entitlement based regime. Unlike the practice of announcing 5-year FTP, the latest policy has no end date and will be updated as and when needed, said Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Sarangi while briefing media about FTP 2023. Earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal unveiled FTP 2023 which will come into effect from April 1, 2023.
The minister suggested that the portal should attract non-exporting manufacturers to draw them towards the export market.
A day after lambasting e-commerce players for predatory pricing, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said he is not against online platforms but India wants such entities to be "fair and honest" in their conduct. Speaking with reporters in the financial capital, the outspoken Union minister said the rule of the law should be followed in letter and spirit, and made it clear that consumer preferences should not be influenced by algorithms.
The government will take up the issue of describing India as a 'unsafe destination' with the World Trade Organization, to prevent a decline in the number of tourists visiting the country after tsunami.
Bankers have read the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) comments on foreign banks' market share in India as an indication that the promised review of policies on the presence of overseas banks in 2009 is unlikely to yield any greater leeway within which they can operate.
'There is not any negative connotation associated with it.'
Having exhausted its powers to block a World Trade Organization probe into high import duties on wine and spirits, India is likely to slash the rates through a new law to resolve the issue with the European Union and the US.
'Every type of deal that US government officials were privately indicating 'hope' to have included a few months back made it in.'
Next week, US Secretary of State John Kerry travels to India for the fourth annual US-India Strategic Dialogue
Late last month, India torpedoed a deal to simplify, standardise and streamline the rules for shipping goods across borders, know as 'trade facilitation', after it demanded concessions on agricultural stockpiling.
US officials said the win will help lower trade barriers and open new markets.
The US textile industry is deeply worried by competitors from India and China as the end of the quota system on December 30 approaches, a media report has said.
India's exports may have touched an all-time high of $422 billion in 2021-22 but recession in key western markets and geo-political crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war are expected to impact the growth of the country's outbound shipments in 2023. All the global trade promoting factors like political stability, movement of goods, adequate availability of containers and shipping lines, demand, stable currency and smooth banking systems are in disarray. Adding to the woes, COVID cases have again started rising in countries like China, Japan, South Korea and the US.
India has expressed its disappointment over non-reaffirmation to conclude 14-year-old Doha Round pacts
A certain segment of the US pharma industry have become vocal about Indian policies on domestic content requirements and IPR.
The Delhi high court on Friday awarded Rs 20 lakh to Microsoft in damages in a 12-year-old copyright infringement suit. Microsoft said that a Mumbai-based firm was illegally using its software programs in which its copyrighted products, including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Windows Server were being reproduced and used for commercial purposes at the firm's offices. The court had on May 24, 2010, passed an injunction restraining the Mumbai firm from infringing the plaintiffs' software programs.
'Its people are either victims of corruption or witnesses to it.'
India's recent move to remove additional 'retaliatory' duty on eight products from the United States (US), including apples and walnuts, would not have any negative impact on the domestic producers, the government clarified, even as the issue threatened to snowball into a political slugfest between the ruling and Opposition parties. The move would, in fact, result in competition in the premium market segment, ensuring better quality at better prices for consumers, especially for apples, a senior government official said. "There were certain concerns that were being raised on the mutually agreed solution that has come in, more specific to seven-eight agriculture products where we had levied additional import duties in retaliation to the steel and aluminum measures (imposed by the US)," Peeyush Kumar, additional secretary in the commerce department, told reporters in a briefing.
This will be an area where bilateral or regional trade pacts may not be able to perform well.
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