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India vetos World Trade Organization revision at last minute

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, August 2, 2014 13:19
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Saturday, August 2, 2014 1:19 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


The WTO has been the main international trade compact since its inception 20 years ago. The former organization was the GATT. The WTO covers issues such as copyrights and patents and dumping and tariffs. This revision is the first since the initial agreement was drawn up.


Nine reasons why India's WTO veto shocked the world (I've edited for brevity. You can read the whole thing here
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/01/india-trade-wto-reasons-idINK
BN0G13HY20140801


Quote:

1. India has been a vocal backer of world trade reform...

2. India's veto may be the beginning of the end for the WTO ... if the WTO's 20-year-old rulebook does not evolve, more and more trade will be governed by new regional agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership... [which] could lead to a fragmented world of separate trade blocs.

3. India's new government was widely seen as being pro-business. And yet it blocked a deal on "trade facilitation", a worldwide streamlining of customs rules that would cut container handling times, guarantee standard procedures for getting goods to and from their destinations and kill off vast amounts of paperwork at borders around the world.

4. Nobody else was negotiating....

5. India did not object to the deal it vetoed. Its objections were unconnected to trade facilitation. It blocked the trade facilitation deal to try to get what it wanted on something else: food security.



Not entirely true. India and the WTO had been negotiating for over a year on food stockpiling and agricultural subsidies, both of which are tightly regulated by the WTO, in the interest of food security. These items were deemed necessary after the big run-up in agricultural commodities futures in 2008(?) which left food-poor nations in danger of being brought down by popular uprising.

Quote:

6. India had already got what it wanted on food security. At Bali, it forced a big concession from the United States and European Union, which initially strongly opposed its demands, but agreed that India could stockpile food at subsidised prices, reversing the trend of trying to reduce and remove trade-distorting food subsidies globally. The arrangement was temporary, but the WTO agreed to work towards a permanent solution within four years, by the end of 2017.

7. India's demands reversed its previous position....

8. India's veto could put it in legal danger...

9. India was isolated. Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia voiced support, but diplomats say other big developing countries such as Russia, China and Brazil, as well as India's neighbour Pakistan, were among the chief opponents of its veto.


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