India to take up food security issue with WTO
The Dollar Business Bureau A senior trade delegation from the Indian Ministry of Commerce will soon visit Geneva to hold talks with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to negotiate and find the solution on food security. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman underscored that the delegation will ensure that India's proposal for trade facilitation agreement (TFA) in services sector gathers momentum. Earlier, Sitharaman and WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo held a meeting during which the two brought out the food security issues. The Indian Commerce Minister underlined that the delegation will highlight both food security and services issues with the WTO. "The team which will be going to Geneva will also see that TFA in services is taken at various stages so that it ...
Heart Versus Head? Let The Heart Win!
If one goes by statistics, withdrawal of MFN status by India will not have a significant impact on Pakistan. Manish K. Pandey | The Dollar Business India’s relationship with Pakistan has always been complicated. After all, there has been a long history of never-ending issues between the two nations. The situation has become even more complex of late, particularly after India held Pakistan responsible for the attack on an army camp at Uri in Kashmir, an attack in which 17 Indian soldiers lost their lives. Since then India has been weighing options to respond – from a direct attack on terrorist camps in Pakistan to increased security on the border with its neighbour, from boycotting SAARC summit being hosted by Islamabad to even rereading ...
Indias trade deficit falls to $5.1 bn in March
The Dollar Business Bureau India’s trade deficit has fallen for the third month in a row to $5.1 billion in March as both exports and imports have declined 5.5% and 21.6% respectively. As per the official data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports have come down continuously for the 16th month to reach $22.7 billion in March, while the imports have also dipped to $27.8 billion last month leading to a trade gap of $11.4 billion in March 2015. Explaining the tepid global demand for exports, the Commerce Ministry said, “The trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies. The growth in exports have fallen for USA (10.81 per cent), European Union (7.40 per cent), ...
International Trade Centre is a valued partner of the multilateral trading system: WTO Chief
The Dollar Business Bureau In a speech to the International Trade Centre (ITC) Joint Advisory Group on June 26, 2015, Director-General of World Trade Organisation Roberto Azevêdo, said that the WTO shares with the ITC — and the UN Conference on Trade and Development — “the responsibility to ensure that trade continues to play its full role in the development agenda, and in continuing to improve the lives of people around the world, in a very concrete and practical manner”. He went on to add, since its creation, the ITC has been a very valued partner of the multilateral trading system and lauded its work to improve the institutional environment for prospective exporters in developing countries. SMEs — which are central to ...
WTO sees slight deceleration in G20 trade restrictions
The Dollar Business Bureau The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) thirteenth trade monitoring report on G20 trade measures, issued on June 15, 2015, shows a slight deceleration in the application of new trade-restrictive measures by G20 economies, with the average number of such measures applied per month lower than at any time since 2013. Since mid-October 2014, 119 new trade-restrictive measures were put in place over the period — an average of 17 new measures per month. Also during this period, G-20 economies continued to adopt measures aimed at facilitating trade. The trend on these trade liberalizing measures remains stable with G-20 economies introducing some 112 new measures during the period under review — an average of 16 measures per month. Trade-restrictive ...
Indias trade policy largely driven by domestic supply factors: WTO
Jayarama Emani | The Dollar Business Despite India continuing its efforts to liberalize and facilitate trade for some agricultural products, and proceeded with further structural reforms including by eliminating price controls on diesel and relaxing foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions in some sectors, its tariff structure remains complex. These were the findings of the sixth Trade Policy Review of India, prepared by World Trade Organisation (WTO). The review also said that, India's trade policy is largely driven by domestic supply considerations and also intended to attain short-term objectives, such as containing fluctuations in commodity prices. This requires constant fine-tuning of policies, for example, through notifications by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and Customs, rendering the trade regime less predictable and ...
WTO chief voices concern with slow progress in key negotiating areas
The Dollar Business Bureau Roberto Azevedo, Director General, World Trade Organisation. Unhappy over not making the progress that is needed in the key areas of agriculture, industrial products and services, Roberto Azevedo, Director General (DG), World Trade Organisation (WTO) convened a meeting of all members in Geneva on June 1, 2015. The meeting discussed the current state of play in negotiations on the work programme to advance the remaining issues of the Doha Development Agenda. The Doha Round is the latest round of trade negotiations among the WTO membership. Its aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The DG said, “I will ensure that meetings of ...
World Trade Organisation chief welcomes strong APEC support for Doha Round
The Dollar Business Bureau Continued backing from APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) and all other World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministers will be “critical” to reaching agreement on a work programme for concluding the Doha Round, said WTO Director-General (DG) Roberto Azevêdo. The Doha Round is the latest round of trade negotiations among the WTO membership. Its aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The DG also welcomed the strong statement of support issued by APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) trade ministers at their meeting in Boracay, the Philippines, on May 23-24, 2015 for other WTO initiatives. The meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) included ...
