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India Reaffirms Commitment to World Trade Organisation (WTO) Centered Fair Trade System | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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India Reaffirms Commitment to World Trade Organisation (WTO) Centered Fair Trade System

Posted 08 Sep 2025

Updated 09 Sep 2025

1 min read

Article Summary

Article Summary

India underscores commitment to a fair, inclusive WTO-centered multilateral trade system, amid global issues like trade distortions, dispute resolution challenges, and geopolitical shifts. 

India emphasized on an open, fair, inclusive, and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with WTO at its core during the SCO Trade Ministers’ meeting.

About WTO (HQ: Geneva, Switzerland)

  • Genesis: 1995 post the Marrakesh Agreement.  Successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). 
  • Members: 166 (India has been a member since 1995). 
  • Principles of WTO: Trade without discrimination, freer trade through negotiation, promoting fair  competition, etc.

Issues Facing WTO:

  • Public Stockholding (PSH): The stockholding programmes are considered to distort trade when they involve purchases from farmers at prices fixed by the governments (like MSP regime in India).
  • Special & Differential Treatment (S&DT): The special provisions which give countries (developing and Least Developed) special rights and allow other members to treat them more favourably.
    • Developed nations argue to phase them out.
  • Dispute Settlement System: Appellate Body (AB) of the WTO ceased to function in 2019 due to USA blocking appointments and reappointment affecting resolution of trade disputes between countries.
  • Geopolitical Shifts: E.g., USA tariff policies, Russia-Ukraine war. 
  • Others: Data privacy, data flows, taxation of digital services, climate change, EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
  • Tags :
  • India and WTO
  • World Trade Organisation (WTO)
  • WTO Centered Fair Trade System
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