India
World Trade

NDIA is a founder member of the General Agree-
ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947 and its
successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO),
which came into effect on 1.1.95 after the conclusion
of the Uruguay Round (UR) of Multilateral Trade
Negotiations. India’s participation in an increasingly
rule based system in the governance of international
trade is to ensure more stability and predictability,
which ultimately would lead to more trade and pros-
perity for itself and the 134 other nations which now
comprise the WTO. India also automatically avails of
MEN and national treatment for its exports to all
WTO Members.

Third Ministerial Conference of
WTO in Seattle

November 30 - December 03, 1999

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Mr.
Murasoli Maran, led the Indian delegation to the
Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO. The dele-
gation also included Members of Parliament, senior
officials from different Ministries and representatives
from the apex chambers of commerce and industry.

Even before the commencement of the Conference
there were widespread protests and demonstrations
in Seattle by a number of anti-WTO groups ranging
from environmental activists to labour unions. The
inaugural session, which was to be held in the fore-
noon of November 30, 1999, had to be abandoned
because of disturbances.

The Chairmen of various Working Groups tried to
narrow down the differences in their respective groups
with a view to arriving at a consensus in the draft
Ministerial text that had been transmitted from the
Geneva preparatory process. However, in view of the
wide divergence of views, no group could present
draft texts for inclusion in the Ministerial declaration
acceptable to all the members. The Chairperson
observed that divergences of opinion remained that
would take time to be narrowed down. It was there-
fore, decided to suspend the work of the Seattle
Ministerial Conference.

Post Seattle scenario:
India is taking advantage of this ‘time out’ to consoli-

& the
Organization

date its position on issues of its interest in the WTO.
Three pronged efforts have been launched which are
as follows:

(a) On the one hand, India has continued to high-
light the areas of its concern at important bilateral
and multilateral meetings, which have been as
follows:

In his meeting with the Director General WTO on
January 12, 2000 at New Delhi, Minister for Com-
merce and Industry emphasised that globalisation
has caused uneven growth, increasing the disparities
between the richest and the poorest. This has to be
addressed, inter alia, by addressing the implementa-
tion problems in existing Agreements and opera-
tionalising the special and differential clauses in favour
of developing countries. A consensus could be reached
only if the more controversial issues, such as non-
trade related issues, could be eliminated from WTO.

In his statement at UNCTAD-X (Bangkok - February
13, 2000), the Minister highlighted that “Interna-
tional rule making must ....permit flexibility and au-
tonomy to developing countries to pursue their ma-
terial development strategies on the basis of needs
and aspirations of their people.” He registered a
strong protest on the part of the developing countries
as to how issues extraneous to trade, such as labour
standards, are sought to be put on the negotiating
agenda, while, on the other hand issues such as the
cross border movement of persons, a matter of great
interest to developing countries is resisted by devel-
oped countries. On the margins of the UNCTAD
Conference at Bangkok, he had also used this oppor-
tunity to have bilateral and plurilateral meetings with
a view to evolve common stand on important WTO
issues.

The UNCTAD Plan of Action has taken on board
some of the important concerns of developing coun-
tries on implementation issues by inter alia recog-
nising that “in the course of implementation of the
WTO Agreements, most developing countries con-
sider that certain imbalances and asymmetries exist”
and that “these problems need to be addressed ur-

See INDIA & WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, Page 20

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