India, South Africa block China-led investment facilitation pact

India and South Africa’s objection to China’s investment facilitation initiative at the WTO affects developing countries including the Least Developed Countries, highlighting the vulnerabilities, the need for flexibilities in existing rules, and support for infant and young industries through conducive policies, incentives, and subsidies.

Amid pressure, New Delhi said that at least five outcomes were in place at the World Trade Orgnaisation MC13, including new disciplines on services domestic regulation. The developing countries are facing demands from richer nations regarding environment, labour, and gender issues.

These WTO (World Trade Organisation) members are taking the additional obligations under the General Agreement on Goods in Services (GATS) to ease non-goods trade among themselves and extend similar concessions to all other members of the WTO.

India opposes China-led IFD, a non-trade issue beyond WTO. It wants to terminate the moratorium on taxing e-commerce transmissions, a key focus point for India at WTO MC13. India’s concern stems from the fact that any attempts by the proponents of IFD to bring a “non-mandated, non-multilateral issue” to the formal process in the WTO […]

Exporters have requested fair distribution of the onion export quota amid confusion caused by conflicting statements from political leaders and senior government officials. The ban on exports remains, but a limited quota has been allowed to Bhutan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Mauritius.

Vietnam has recently imported husked brown rice from India for the first time in years, aiming to process it into refined white rice for export, capitalizing on high global demand. This move comes as Vietnam faces increased export orders following India’s ban on white rice exports in 2023. Vietnamese rice shipments hit a record 8.3 […]

India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, was absent at the start of a major World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Abu Dhabi, causing concerns about the impact on discussions. Goyal is a key player in the trade negotiations focusing on fisheries and digital trade tariffs. However, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated that Goyal’s participation delay was […]

India expresses serious concerns at WTO meeting over trade protectionist measures and their impact on exports to the EU. Issues raised include carbon tax, deforestation regulation, and the need for flexibility in WTO agreements. Speaking at a session on sustainable development and policy space for industrialisation, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said developing countries require flexibility […]

Piyush Goyal said that India “firmly believes that any measures taken to combat climate change, including unilateral ones, should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.

Separately, Indonesia has backed New Delhi’s proposal to reinvigorate the work under the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, which requires structured discussion on trade-related issues over global e-commerce, taking into account the economic, financial and development needs of developing countries.