WTO Reforms push by India

History of WTO

1948: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

International Trade Organization (ITO): Never came to existence

1944: Bretton Woods Conference

Uruguay Round (1987 to 1994)

Marrakesh Agreement

World Trade Organization (WTO) establishment

Why WTO replaced the GATT?

No dispute resolution procedure

GATT lacked institutional structure

Trade in services and intellectual property rights were not covered

Relations with the UN

Maintains strong relations with UN

WTO is not a UN specialized agency

Major Agreements

General Agreements in Services

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

General Agreement on Tariff and Trade of Goods

Principles of WTO

Effectiveness and Relevance

Impartiality and Consensus

Coherence

Openness

Development Dimension

Transparency

Agreement on Agriculture

Issue over Amber Box subsidies

Wef. Uruguay Round (1995)

Achievements of WTO

Increased Global Value Chains

Upliftment of Poor Countries

Improved Economic Growth

IPR protection

Global Facilitation of Trade

India and WTO

India is a major proponent for reforms

Voice for developing countries

India is a founder member since GATT

Challenges facing WTO

Disagreement on TRIPS waiver for Covid-19

Regulating irrational subsidies provided for fishing

Public stockholding for food security purposes

Fragmentation of global governance due to plurilateral trade agreements

Disfunctional appellate body

Way forward

For countering China’s trade policies and practices

Essential for developing countries

Needs institutional reforms

For maintaining plurilateralism

Need for reinvigoration

A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel has ruled that India has violated global trading rules in a dispute with the European Union (EU), Japan, and Taiwan over import duties on IT products.