Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India enjoys partial success in the conference of WTO' that was published in Newsband

India enjoys partial success in the conference of WTO

After the end of the 11th biennial ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation, India is seeing the outcome as a partial success. The rift between advanced economies and the rest was apparent. The U.S. has said it wants to clarify its understanding of “development”.

India rightly argued that while its GDP may be growing, the country has hundreds of millions living in poverty and without food security. While India can, and must, develop a multi-pronged approach to end hunger, it is correct to seek clarifications that its sovereign right to provide subsidies for food security is not compromised by the WTO.

Each country has the right to seek self-sufficiency in respect of strategic items like food, fuel, medicines, arms, etc. The WTO should recognise that there are limits imposed on free trade due to political factors. Many developing countries are apprehensive of neo-colonialism being advanced in the garb of free trade.

The idea of WTO is not to bridge the divide between the rich and poor countries, or to make the rich poorer and the poor richer. Those are Indian interpretations. The idea of WTO is to have the same set of rules for trading for all countries - rich or poor. But India wants special concessions for its farmers citing "poverty". From the U.S. point of view it is India that killed the WTO by insisting on linking food security guarantee programs to everything else which killed agreements on anything at WTO. The U.S. wanted to keep food issues away from other issues on trade and services. The US feels, “Why use "poverty" as a get-out-of-jail-free card? It is unbecoming of a country with vast knowledge- & skill-base to play that card. India is not Africa.”

Trump’s contempt for free trade was in full display during the meetings of G7 and G20. He was able to put pressure on them and shift the emphasis from "free" to "fair" trade. With China, he had to move away from all his earlier visceral attacks and the Chinese reciprocated by offering high value contracts promoting trade with that country. Likewise, he has made attacks on WTO also.

The US has stalled negotiations on all new items and sabotaged the demand of developing countries on food security. Given other disputes like China's non-market status and the appointments to DSB blocked by the US, it is more or less RIP for the WTO.

The developed world represented by the United States will never allow the economic and commercial interests of advanced countries to be adversely affected by concessions to the developing countries. The advanced countries forget their obligations to the developing world, which arise from the decades economic and commercial exploitation of colonies in Asia and Africa. The one-sided approach of US is deeply dividing poor and rich nations politically and economically. Stalemate at WTO will further widen the gap

The US policies after advent of Trump are becoming a big embarrassment for itself and unpalatable for friendly countries like India. Trump seems to manage his country as a CEO of his enterprise with coloured and limited vision where morality and statesmanship have no value.

But from the U.S. point of view it is India that killed the WTO by insisting on linking food security guarantee programs to everything else which killed agreements on anything at WTO. The U.S. wanted to keep food issues away from other issues on trade and services.