WTO

India has been singularly successful in achieving its objectives in Doha - in securing primacy for implementation problems, in bringing the anti-dumping agreement to the negotiating table, in getting a waiver from the agreement on TRIPS in times of public health emergencies and creating the opportunity for protection of geographical indications and traditional knowledge, in ensuring exemption for integrated textile products from anti-dumping action and the negotiation of textile tariff peaks, in keeping core labour standards out of the purview of WTO and in postponing negotiations on the four Singapore issues. The only area where it had to compromise to some extent was in respect of trade and environment.

World Trade Organisation: An Indian Perspective by Jayanta Bagchi; Eastern Law House, Kolkata, 2001; pp 243, Rs 400.

The biggest gain for India from the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation that concluded at Doha on November 14 is that a fresh round of trade negotiations has been kicked off. It is also to India’s advantage that the Doha meet has incorporated into the WTO agenda several concerns of developing countries and by doing so promises to take the process of globalisation and global integration ahead. India played a proactive role in the negotiations. Although it could be argued that trade minister Maran and his team displayed more vigour in pushing what have come to be identified as India’s national postures than in correctly identifying what indeed are our national interests, there is no gainsaying that India played an important role in securing a major achievement of the summit – developing country assertion of their interests.

The consequence of the government's approach to the WTO and to trade negotiations is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our flawed rejectionist approach to negotiations, with the absurd threats to leave, imply that we are unable to address our own immediate trading concerns, and end up with agreements which do not meet our concerns and which we are ill-equipped to implement.

In the wake of the dismantling of the quantitative restriction (QR) regimes and the ongoing round of negotiations on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), India and other like-minded developing countries have been raising fundamental concerns on the likely adverse impact of the AoA on their food and livelihood security systems. Simultaneously, the government of India has also initiated measures for carefully monitoring and regulating the import liberalisation process ushered in by the Exim policy 2001-02. Based on these developments, this paper advocates rigorous negotiation positions and proactive programmes of development in order to address the pressing problems arising from the AoA. Developing countries, whose agrarian economies are characterised by 'ecosystemic multifunctionality', have the scope for providing income diversification opportunities for the weaker sections of the farming communities through development of common property resources. This then could form the best safety net to contain the fallout of the agri-agreement.