New Delhi, March 28 India has cautioned WTO members against using "transparency" to justify trade retaliation or challenge legitimate domestic policies, saying that it must be supported by sustained capacity-building to ensure that all countries meet their obligations fairly and effectively.
"Transparency" is a key component of the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s technical barriers to trade agreement. Under this, member nations are required to regularly and clearly share information about their trade policies, subsidies, and regulatory measures.
The US has been pushing for stricter rules on mandatory disclosures as part of the WTO reform proposal. It alleges that many countries do not timely notify subsidies, tariffs, or policy changes to the WTO.
Developing member nations of the WTO agree in principle that transparency is important, but have serious reservations about how the US wants to implement it. These emerging economies oppose penalties for failure to notify information, arguing that many countries lack the capacity.
"India has cautioned WTO members against using transparency to justify trade retaliation or challenge legitimate domestic policies, saying that it must be supported by sustained capacity-building to ensure that all members, especially developing countries, can meet their obligations fairly and effectively," the commerce ministry said in a statement.
The issue was flagged on March 27 by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a session on 'level playing field issues' of the 14th ministerial conference (MC14), which is underway in Yaounde, Cameroon. The MC is the highest decision-making body of the 166-member multilateral organization, which meets once every two years.
India has also stressed on the importance of all members to have a fair opportunity to build productive capacity, create employment, and participate meaningfully in global trade.
In a separate session, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said the country supports a time-bound restart of reform efforts with milestones, but said that it should be based on a more robust evidentiary analysis and through engagement with submissions and Ministerial Decisions.
"India unequivocally called for eschewing cherry-picking issues and proliferating preconceived and prejudged positions," it said.
He also cautioned against plurilateral agreements, saying they divide the multilateral trading system. Agrawal called for the consensus process to be based on the principles of openness, transparency, inclusivity, participative and member-driven, it added.
On the sidelines of the conference, Goyal held a bilateral meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Maninder Sidhu and took stock of the progress of negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement. He also met Oman’s Secretary of State to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Omar Hejira.