World Trade Organization

Policies related to India’s sugar sector are facing adjudication in a case brought to the World Trade Organization. It is alleged that India provides market price support on account of fair and remunerative price and other measures to the sugar sector in excess of maximum applicable permissible limit under the Agreement on Agriculture. Without these policies, the sugar sector, employing over 50 million farmers, would face a tremendous challenge. Irrespective of the legal outcome and given the minuscule policy space available under the amber box, this paper finds the provisions of the blue box feasible and worthwhile to explore for the distressed sugar sector. Further, it highlights the asymmetries and imbalances in the AoA that adversely impact the policy space of developing members, including India.

The recent decision of the United States to impose punitive tariffs on imports from China and the European Union, and the retaliation of these trade partners in tandem, is of concern to the global community. In analysing these contemporary events, it is argued that the genesis of the trade war can potentially be traced to the piling up of global imbalances, and the failure of the global financial institutions or fora—like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund—to address such imbalances. In such a context, whether the emerging economies have the ability to influence the course and outcomes of the current trade war, and whether this trade war can generate the possibility of reform of the international institutions are explored here.