WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/35 
30 November 2009 
 (09-6098) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
INDIA 
 
Statement by HE Mr Anand Sharma
 
Minister of Commerce and Industry  
   It gives me great pleasure to be here for the Seventh Ministerial Conference of the WTO and 
to share my thoughts on this important theme. 
 
 For over a year, the global economy is reeling under the worst crisis of the last seven decades.  There is a glimmer of hope that the worst is over, but the pace of and path for recovery is far from 
certain.  The IMF's assessment is that recovery  will be subdued and slow .  Many economists have 
cautioned that high debt levels could lead to a double dip recession in the US, which could then spread to other countries. 
 
 What is inescapable is that the ongoing crisis  has triggered a sharp contraction of aggregate 
demand leading to fairly disastrous consequences for global production and global trade.  It is equally 
clear that it is developing countries which have born e a disproportionate impact of the crisis in terms 
of employment, livelihood and food scarcity.  In th e absence of social safety nets, the poor in 
developing countries have been the hardest hit. 
  However, even a crisis has its uses.  As someone said recently, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste".  The crisis has already taught us several lessons.  
• In an increasingly globalized economy, good decisions and bad mistakes have spill 
over externalities. 
 
• The global economy today is hard-wired in a way that makes protectionist measures 
difficult to resort to.  That is why, while protectionist tendencies have surfaced during the crisis, they have not swamped the glob al trading system.  Protectionism is a 
global bad.  And yet some persevere in wo rking on ideas of 'green protectionism'.  
This is a dangerous trend and will only create fresh tensions in global trade.  In our 
considered view protectionism will be counterproductive and prolong the recession 
and delay the recovery. 
 
• Interdependence is integral to globaliza tion and therefore "beggar thy neighbour" 
policies are counterproductive.  Equally, if we all lower barriers to trade, it yields benefit for all.  We therefore have to wo rk together to design a global finance and 
economic architecture that works for all. 
 
• Globalization can only retain its legitimacy if  it works for all, especially the poorest. 
 WT/MIN(09)/ST/35 
Page 2  
 
   For India, this Ministerial Conference holds a special significance, coming close on the heels 
of the informal Ministerial meeting in New Delhi, where we saw a unanimous affirmation of the need 
to conclude the Doha Round within 2010 and a clea r recognition that intensifying negotiations based 
on progress already made was the first step toward s bridging the differences that persist on many 
issues.  The meeting triggered intensiv e engagement which continues today. 
 
 However, while we have witnessed some progress,  it is clearly insufficient to bring the Round 
to closure next year.  Clearly, there is a need fo r collective introspection.  Let me do some plain 
speaking.  The major focus of the engagement in  the last three months has been on non-headline 
issues.  But the reasons for the impasse are precisel y the gaps on headline issues.  When are we going 
to address them?  A process which does not enable a candid dialogue on such issues is not going to 
take us to closure in 2010.  So, the basic issue is :  how do we design a process to break this impasse?  
I believe we can move forward quickly if we accept four principles.  
• A major concern of developing countries is  that the development objectives of the 
Round continue to be diluted or ignored.  Putting the development back firmly on the 
agenda would incentivize developing countri es to bring more to the negotiations.  
Major issues like DFQF, SSM, Cotton, Pref erence Erosion, Fisheries subsidies, 
Mode-4 access in Services, the TRIPS-CBD relationship, need to be dealt with sympathetically as they have a major bearing on the development outcome of the Round. 
 
• In the process of bridging gaps, we cannot  go back on the broad understandings of the 
past.  Progress has to be based on the foundatio ns already laid in the negotiations in 
the last eight years. 
 
• Demands for additional market access in de veloping countries have to be based on 
the development mandate.  The mandate cannot be twisted to meet mercantilist 
expectations. 
 
• While we have no problem of engaging in  any format to move the negotiations 
forward, the multilateral process which guarant ees transparency and inclusivity has to 
be the basic mode of negotiations. 
  This brings me to the subject of the WTO itself.   On the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of the 
WTO, it is the right time for all its Members to refl ect on the institution.  I believe, we all agree that 
the WTO is a strong Member-driven institution.  Ho wever, is the WTO keeping pace with the rapid 
changes in the global trading system?  What more do we  need to do to keep it  ahead of the curve?  
The WTO has never shied away from examining itsel f critically.  In 1983, Arthur Dunkel established 
a panel to report on the multilateral trading system  and in 2003, we had the Sutherland Report. 
 
 As a founding member of the WTO, India is d eeply interested in the continued growth and 
credibility of the WTO.  To this end, India ma de a submission to the General Council containing 
proposals to improve the functioning and efficien cy of the WTO as a rules-based system.  These 
proposals are designed to improve the capacity of the WTO to provide better services to its Members 
without in any way diluting its fundamental deliber ative structure based on consensus.  The proposal 
seeks to enhance transparency, inclusivity and e fficiency.  I am pleased that an overwhelming 
majority of Members have supported this initiative.   We look forward to working with Members to 
operationalize these ideas.   Together, we comprise the WTO, but the WTO is more than merely the sum of its parts.  
While the world is exploring new institutional solutions for global economic governance, in the  WT/MIN(09)/ST/35 
 Page 3 
 
 
  WTO we already have an established rules-based system for managing global trade.  It is our 
collective responsibility to preserve and strengthen it.  
__________