Wto

WTO: India for 'per capita distribution of subsidies' criteria for fishers

India also flagged the difference in the amount of subsidy provided by developing nations such as India, as compared to developed nations

Biden should revive WTO dispute settlement mechanism before leaving

The decision to give a second term to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala reflects broad recognition of her exceptional leadership and strategic vision for the future of the WTO

WHO chief congratulates Okonjo on reappointment as WTO Director General

On her reappointment, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala thanked the members and highlighted the challenges she plans to address

Incumbent WTO head Iweala lone contender for top job in Trump era 2.0

During his first term, Trump paralysed WTO's top adjudications court by blocking judge appointments - a status that continues today - and announced tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum

China files complaint at WTO over EU anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese EVs

China has moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organisation that alleges the European Union has improperly set anti-subsidy tariffs on new Chinese-made electric vehicles. The Chinese diplomatic mission to the WTO said Monday it strongly opposes the measures and insisted its move was designed to protect the EV industry and support a global transition toward greener technologies. The European bloc announced last month it was imposing import duties of up to 35% on electric vehicles from China, alleging the Chinese exports were unfairly undercutting EU industry prices. The duties are set to remain in force for five years, unless an amicable deal can be struck. Electric vehicles have become a major flashpoint in a broader trade dispute over the influence of Chinese government subsidies on European markets and Beijing's burgeoning exports of green technology to the bloc. China alleged that the EU move amounted to an abuse of trade remedies that violates WTO rules, and amount

WTO accepts India request to defer ICT import duty dispute ruling until Apr

The WTO's dispute settlement body on Monday again accepted a request from India and Chinese Taipei not to adopt the ruling against New Delhi's import duties on certain information and technology products till April next year, as both sides are engaged in resolving the matter mutually, an official said. The issue came up during a meeting of the dispute settlement body (DSB) in Geneva. "The DSB agreed to the latest requests from Chinese Taipei and India," the Geneva-based official said. At the October 28 meeting, India and Chinese Taipei once again requested additional time from the DSB to consider the adoption of the panel rulings in the case initiated by Chinese Taipei regarding India's tariffs on certain high-tech goods. The two sides had requested that the DSB further delay consideration of the panel reports until October 28, 2024, to help facilitate the resolution of the disputes. "The parties asked that the DSB further delay consideration of the panel report until 25 April 202

India not in favour of facilitator-led process in WTO on agriculture issues

India on Monday expressed reservations over the facilitator-led process in the World Trade Organisation to discuss issues on agriculture, saying that it would potentially undermine ministerial mandates and take negotiations backwards, an official said. The issue came up during a meeting of Heads of Delegation (HoDs) dedicated to agriculture in Geneva at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The official said that India has stressed on the urgency to address mandated matters like public stockholding (PSH), special safeguard mechanism (SSM), and cotton issues in dedicated sessions, separate from broader agriculture negotiations. "India noted that the facilitator-led process would potentially undermine Ministerial mandates and it would take negotiations backwards. It also raised concerns about transparency, neutrality, and inclusive discussion in the facilitator model and warned against creating new pillars, as it would complicate negotiations further," the Geneva-based official said. I

WTO slightly raises 2024 goods trade forecast but wary of possible setbacks

The World Trade Organisation raised its outlook for global goods trade this year slightly, but cautioned Thursday that increasing geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over economy policy pose substantial risks to its forecast. The Geneva-based WTO projected that global goods trade will increase by 2.7 per cent this year, compared with the 2.6 per cent it forecast in April. But it predicted growth of 3 per cent next year, down from the 3.3 per cent it forecast previously. Last year, the volume of world merchandise trade was down 1.1 per cent, pushed lower by high inflation and rising interest rates. The global trade body cautioned that rising geopolitical tensions and increased economic policy uncertainty continue to pose substantial downside risks to the forecast. Still, it pointed to a 2.3 per cent year-on-year increase in global merchandise trade in this year's first six months and noted that inflation had fallen far enough by mid-year for central banks to start cutting interest

Export bans to subsidies: WTO nations inquire about India's agri policies

Nations including the US, UK, Japan, and Canada have sought answers from India about its continued export bans and other agricultural policies at the World Trade Organization (WTO)

WTO accepts India's request to delay import duty dispute ruling till Oct

The WTO's dispute settlement body has accepted a request from India and Chinese Taipei not to adopt the ruling against New Delhi's import duties on certain information and technology products till October-end, as both sides are engaged in resolving the matter mutually, an official said. The issue came up during a meeting of the dispute settlement body (DSB) in Geneva on July 26. "The DSB agreed to the latest requests from Chinese Taipei and India," the Geneva-based official said. At the July 26 meeting, India and Chinese Taipei once again requested additional time from the DSB to consider the adoption of the panel rulings in the case initiated by Chinese Taipei regarding India's tariffs on certain high-tech goods. The two sides had asked that the DSB further delay consideration of the panel reports until October 28, 2024, to help facilitate the resolution of the disputes. The dispute body had earlier agreed to four previous such requests from India and Chinese Taipei to delay ...

India flags high trade deficit in policy review meet of China in WTO

India has flagged its concerns over high trade deficit and non-transparent subsidies of China in a meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Geneva, stating those measures impact domestic industry, an official said. Participating at the WTO's trade policy review meeting of China this week, India hoped that China will support issues concerning the Global South. The Geneva-based trade official said India noted that its bilateral trade with China records the biggest trade deficit. New Delhi has expressed concerns over the size of this deficit, and the non-transparent subsidies and mechanisms of China that leads to low prices, hurting local industry, the official added. India's exports to China in 2023-24 stopped at USD 16.65 billion, while imports aggregated at USD 101.75 billion, leaving a trade deficit of over USD 85 billion. China has emerged as the largest trading partner of India with USD 118.4 billion two-way commerce in 2023-24, slightly edging past the US. In the meetin

Fishing groups demand to keep fisheries' subsidy negotiations out of WTO

Ahead of the General Council meeting in Geneva, small-scale fisher groups from many countries, including India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, have demanded that the WTO should not negotiate fisheries subsidies as the ongoing talks are 'unfair and unbalanced'. Members of the Geneva-based 166-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) after finalising a deal on curbing harmful subsidies on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, are now discussing ways to curb these support measures that are contributing to overcapacity and overfishing (OCOF). The General Council is the second highest decision-making body of the WTO after the ministerial conference (MC), which meets after every two years. The World Forum of Fisher Peoples and the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers have raised concerns over the current text and said that exemptions for small-scale fishers across developing countries are being restricted by imposing irrational conditionalities. "We, therefore, demand that ...

Fearing Donald Trump victory, developed countries push WTO deals

But India not keen to join efforts on fisheries and e-commerce JSI

Some WTO nations question India's $48 billion farm input subsidies

Some WTO members, including the US and the UK, have raised questions on India's USD 48 billion farm input subsidies for 2022-23, which according to New Delhi has increased due to inflation and rising costs of fertilisers, an official said. The issue was flagged by these members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during a meeting of the committee on agriculture on May 23-24. "India explained that the input subsidies are mainly for power, irrigation, and fertilizers and that the increase was due to inflation and rising costs of fertilizers. It insisted that the information had been duly notified to the WTO," the Geneva-based official said. The 166-member WTO is a global trade body. It also adjudicates trade disputes between the member countries. India has notified these numbers to the WTO in April. Under WTO rules of special and differential treatment, developing member countries are allowed to provide these subsidies to low-income or resource-poor farmers. "India's new notificat

Brazil, EU urge India for timely notifications on sugar subsidies at WTO

A group of WTO member countries, including Brazil, Canada and the European Union, have urged India to submit timely notifications on sugar subsidies in the World Trade Organisation, an official said. The issue came up for discussion during the meeting of the WTO's agriculture committee on May 23-24 in Geneva. These countries are also major sugar exporters like India and they allege that support measures by India distort global sugar trade. Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay, New Zealand, the EU, and Guatemala have "urged India to submit timely notifications on the subsidies", the Geneva-based official said. India has stated that the Indian central and state governments neither paid for nor procured sugarcane from farmers, as all purchases were made by private sugar mills, hence, this information was not included in its notifications of domestic support. The discussion assumes significance as in 2022, India has appealed against a ruling of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) tra

Govt working to help exporters deal with countervailing duty cases

The government is working on a verification system to help exporters deal with countervailing duty cases on domestic products over the RODTEP scheme, an official said. The exercise is important as countervailing or anti-subsidy duties were imposed on certain domestic units by the US and European Union (EU). The products which were investigated by these countries involved reimbursement of levies like electricity duty, VAT on fuel or APMC taxes under the Scheme for Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP). The scheme is a WTO (World Trade Organisation) compliant measure. The official explained that the duties have been imposed on certain units only and that too because they could not produce the right documents to the investigation authorities. The commerce ministry is helping Indian exporters to keep proper documentation to deal with these cases. "We will be giving guidance notes from DGTR (directorate general of trade remedies) to units so that whenever an ...

India calls for reinvigorating discussions on development agenda at WTO

India has called for re-energising discussions in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on the development dimension to achieve tangible progress and meaningful outcomes. In a communication to the WTO, the country said that there is a substantial unfinished development agenda emanating from the recently concluded 13th ministerial conference of the WTO in Abu Dhabi. "We seek to strengthen the discussions and debate on the issue of development in the working of all regular bodies of this organisation. We wish that the momentum of development discussions continues in a focused and structured way. "We, therefore, need to commit to reinvigorating discussions on the development dimension for tangible progress and meaningful outcomes for the WTO to be seen as fit for purpose," India said in its communication titled - '30 Years of WTO: How has Development Dimension progressed - A way forward'. According to experts, development agenda refers to issues being pushed by developing and least ...

WTO's step towards dispute settlement process reform

Many WTO members have opted to include a mechanism for resolving trade disputes in their bilateral or regional free trade agreements

WTO pares down projected merchandise trade volume growth to 2.6% for FY24

India's merchandise exports in value terms are expected to contract by 1-1.5 per cent in 2023-24 after two consecutive years of growth

Fifth time in a row: India invokes the peace clause for rice in WTO

Prescribed subsidy limit breached for marketing yr 2022-23