New Delhi: India’s commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal Thursday came down heavily on the functioning of the global trade body, the World Trade Organisation, calling its functioning extremely unfair against the developing countries, asking the WTO to reassess the way it has been conducting its affairs.
Addressing a programme organized by industry body the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Goyal said some countries do not give market access equitably and openly, and extend hidden subsidies.
Goyal said the developed countries should do more and meet their obligations such as providing clean and green technology to developing countries such as India to help them achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), climate goals and meet the needs of billions of people.
“It think it’s so unfair! I can understand a discussion on which countries should be considered developing and which should now be considered developed, I think the world should be open to a discussion on that,” Goyal told the gathering.
He, however, lamented the criteria adopted at the trade negotiations being conducted at the WTO.
“To deprive countries from certain differentiated treatment in their business practices when they are at levels of $600-3000 per capita income and putting them on the same benchmark as a country which makes $60,000 or $80,000 per capita is grossly unfair,” said the minister.
In an oblique reference to China, Goyal said today the world was concerned about the growing dominance of non-transparent and non-market economies.
He further said today the most powerful countries in the world were concerned about the growing dominance of non-transparent and non-market economies and, therefore, were looking to engage with India because in their own ecosystem they were not able to produce as many STEM graduates as a country like India did.
The minister said the world was looking at India’s contribution to innovation and sustainability.
“India is a land of disruptive ideas and our industries will play a critical role in growing our global footprint as we undertake bold reforms for achieving aggressive targets,” he added.
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