WT/MIN(17)/ST/9  
 
13 December 2017  
(17-6884) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR  SURESH PRABHAKAR PRA BHU 
UNION MINISTER FOR C OMMERCE AND INDUSTRY  
INDIA 
Madam Chairperson, Ministers, Director General, Ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen I thank 
Minister Susana Malcorra, the government and the people of Argentina for their warm hospitality 
and for organising this conference.  
 
The expansion of global trade is  our vision in the WTO. All countries stand to benefit from it. 
Therefore, at MC11 we urge the entire WTO Membership to unequivocally reaffirm the importance 
of a rules -based multilateral trading system as enshrined in the Marrakesh Agreement.  
 
The outcome  of the expansion of global trade must be development. India calls upon the WTO 
membership to re -endorse the centrality of development in WTO negotiations without creating new 
sub-categories of countries.  
 
At MC11 we look forward to constructive engagemen t of the entire WTO membership for taking 
final decisions in areas where specific mandates were provided at Nairobi.  
 
One such issue is the permanent solution for public stockholding for food security purposes. This is 
a matter of survival for eight hundr ed million hungry and undernourished people in the world. A 
successful resolution of this issue would fulfil our collective commitment to the global community. 
In this context, we cannot envisage any negotiated outcome at MC 11, which does not include a 
permanent solution.  
 
Turning to Agricultural Domestic Support, the Agreement on Agriculture provides considerable 
flexibility to the developed members to provide huge subsidies and further, to concentrate these 
subsidies on a few products. This asymmetry ne eds to be addressed as a first step in agricultural 
reform through a post -MC11 work programme without, however, shifting the burden of reduction 
of agricultural subsidies to developing countries.  
 
India recognizes that some progress has been made in the a rea of fisheries subsidies. We can 
agree to future work on this issue towards an outcome at MC12 that preserves the policy space for 
developing countries to support millions who depend on traditional fishing activity as the sole 
source of livelihood.  
 
On S ervices, India has engaged constructively with the proponents of the domestic regulation 
disciplines. However, I am apprehensive that the present approach in the negotiations will not lead 
to any fruitful outcomes at MC11. A work programme for Services inc luding DR and some elements 
of India's proposal on Trade Facilitation in Services, including Mode 4, can take the Services 
agenda forward.  
 
Turning to some of the new issues that are sought to be introduced into the negotiating agenda of 
the WTO, in India's view agreeing to these would be extremely divisive. Many of these issues are 
neither trade -related nor have these been discussed in detail. For instance, on E -commerce, 
India's view is that gains from E -commerce must not be confused with g ains from negotiating 
binding rules in this area. It is for this reason that we support continuation of the 1998 Work 
Programme with its non -negotiating mandate.  
 WT/MIN(17)/ST/9  
 
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  In this context, shifting the priority from DDA issues to non -trade issues like Investment 
Facilitation and MSMEs, for which there is no mandate, is difficult to accept.  
 
Let me take this opportunity to express India's concern at the inordinate delay in appointment of 
new members to the Appellate Body. We need to collectively and expeditiously re solve this 
impasse.  
 
We are increasingly seeing that the discourse on development at the WTO is sought to be 
deflected by specious arguments based on aggregate GDP figures. While in India we are proud of 
our GDP and growth rates of recent years, propelled by innovative economic policies of my 
government, we cannot ignore that India is home to more than 600 million poor people. Therefore, 
we are legitimate demandeurs for special and differential treatment for developing countries. It is 
also noteworthy that many developed countries of today have benefitted from long periods of 
derogation from GATT rules in the area of agriculture and textiles.  
 
In conclusion, let me say that at a time when the global trade environment is extremely fragile, let 
this Ministeri al Conference be an occasion for concluding the unfinished agenda of the Doha Work 
Programme, and collectively strive to preserve and revitalize the WTO.  
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