**Table 11: Current and Recommended Negotiating and**<sup>**Domestic Policy Positions**</sup>

||<br>**Iisie**|**Cur**<br>**tp**<br>**it:a**|**Rded**|
|---|---|---|
|<br>Industrial<br>tariffs|Reluctant but willing to<br>accept negotiations|Reduce own bound and actual tariffs and seek to reduce<br>tariffs in other countries, especially in textiles, clothing<br>and footwear.|
|Agriculture|Seeking the flexibility to<br>protect domestic agriculture<br>while pushing for<br>liberalization abroad|End policies which discriminate against agriculture.<sup>Push</sup><br>for liberalization on a global basis and consider joining<br>Cairns group.|
|Services|Defensive position in relation<br>to opening domestic services<br>markets, while pushing for<br>increased mobility for<br>individual service suppliers|Further domestic liberalization,<sup>emphasizing competition</sup><br>more than a change of ownership,<sup>and greater use of</sup><br>GATS to precommi**t**o future liberalization. Create<sup>inter-</sup><br>modal negotiating linkages to enhance access for<br>individual service suppliers. Strengthen domestic<br>regulations and push for stronger multilateral<sup>disciplines</sup><br>on regulatory barriers to trade.|
|Electronic<br>commerce|Initially opposed but now<br>willing to support decision<br>not to impose customs duties.|<br>Current decision has little meaning since quotas and<br>discriminatory internal taxation are still permitted in<br>many cases. Therefore,<sup>widen and deepen scope of cross-</sup><br>border supply commitments under GATS on market<br>access (prohibiting quotas) and national treatment<br>(prohibiting discriminatory taxation) to ensure current<br>openness continues in areas of export interest like<br>software and database services.|
|TRIPs|Seeking general provisions<br>on transfer of technology and<br>increased protection for<br>traditional knowledge and<br>bioresources.|Change draft IP legislation to ensure that TRIPs benefits<br>can be withdrawn in the event<sup>of noncompliance by</sup><br>partners with commitments that affect India's exports.<br>Institute workable systems for protecting traditional<br>knowledge domestically in order to seek their replication<br>internationally. Use new competition policy, and<br>judicious use of compulsory licensing, to mitigate the<br>egregious impacts of the TRIPs agreement.|
|Preferential<br>agreements|In favor of strengthening<br>rules|<br>Argue for inclusion of compensation provision for third<br>countries adversely affected by trade-diversion.<br>|
|Competition<br>policy|Opposed|Strengthen domestic competition policy and be open to<br>the development of meaningful multilateral disciplines,<br>which ideally would also cover anti-dumping|
|Standards|Pushing for inclusion in<br>MRAs<br>Opposed to labour standards<br>**___________**__________|<br>Strengthen disciplines on MRAs to ensure that they are<br>non-discriminatory. Push for multilateral disciplines<sup>on</sup><br>domestic regulations<sup>in goods and services based on the</sup><br>necessity test. Improve domestic standards. And<sup>on</sup><br>labor standards, be proactive in the ILO while<sup>resisting</sup><br>attempts<br>to bring<br>the issue into the WTO.|
|Government<br>procurement|Opposed|<br> <br>Be open to creation of multilateral disciplines, but link<sup>to</sup><br>the elimination of barriers to trade in goods and services,<br>so that foreign procurement contracts can be contested<sup>in</sup><br>areas of comparative advantage, such as labor<sup>services.</sup>|
|Investment|Opposed|<br>Be willing to discuss multilateral disciplines, but examine<br>case for preserving discretion beyond that provided<sup>by</sup><br>strengthened competition policy.|
|Anti-dumping|Seeking to limit scope for<br>foreign action.|<br>Curtail domestic use of anti-dumping. Argue for drastic<br>reform of multilateral anti-dumping rules to eliminate<br>current protectionist use, ideally by subjecting<sup>them to</sup><br>competition policy.|

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