China, Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh and South Africa are among 23 countries that will participate in an informal ministerial meeting of developing and least developed countries (LDC) hosted by India here on May 13-14. The participants will discuss common concerns at the WTO including special dispensation for poorer members, growing plurilateralism, discussions on systemic reforms and e-commerce.

 

Delhi Declaration

“Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will chair the meeting of trade ministers and ambassadors to the WTO on May 13-14 and a ‘Delhi Declaration’ showing the way ahead will be drafted at the end of the meeting,” a government official told BusinessLine.

 

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo is also scheduled to attend the meeting.

 

“The idea is to find out how many developing nations and LDCs support India’s views on various issues. If the views are similar, attempts will be made to arrive at a common position and fight for it together at the WTO,” the official said.

 

Rich nations including the US and the EU are questioning the special and differential treatment (S&D) at the WTO for poorer countries — which larger developing countries such as India, China and South Africa are also eligible for — and have argued that they should not have special carve-outs in terms of commitments and implementation timelines.

 

For instance, in the ongoing negotiations on checking fisheries subsidies, the rich countries are unwilling to extend S&D to China and India.

 

New Delhi has been stressing that S&D is one of the essentials of the WTO, and that India has a huge poor population that has to be protected from indiscriminate liberalisation. “India wants WTO reforms to continue to be seen through a development lens, and is eager for the support of like-minded countries,” the official said.

 

The ongoing plurilateral talks on e-commerce at the WTO is another key topic. India is not in favour of plurilateral talks at the multilateral forum. It also believes that e-commerce is at too nascent a stage to require multilateral rules.

 

Prabhu wants to have a mini-ministerial meeting of key WTO players, both developing and developed members, in September, ahead of the full-fledged official Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in June 2020 in Kazakhstan, the official added.