NEW DELHI: At a recently-held meeting of the Trade, Investment and Industry Working Group (TIIWG), trade ministers of G20 countries expressed support for six priority issues to address global trade challenges. The issue on top of the list was reforms in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). TIIWG is the primary platform which deals with issues related to global trade and commerce. The meeting took place at Nusua Dua province of Bali from September 19-20 and was the last of the discussions previously held in March and July 2022.
The Group of 20 advanced economies has been one of the early proponents for reforms in WTO. Back in 2018, during the Argentinian presidency, G20 leaders issued a statement acknowledging its shortcomings. Ever since, G20 leaders have voiced their support for reform of the multilateral organisation and improvement in its functioning as per present day requirements.
It is a widely-held belief among the developing economies that multilateral institutions, like the WTO, have become consensus-building platforms at the service of European and North American nations and the issues rattling global South are largely missing or brushed under the carpet.
Even the word ‘reform’ has different meaning for developed and developing nations. For the nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America, the WTO and other multilateral organisations are instruments in the hands of the ‘West’, or developed world, to maintain status quo of a bygone era. The structures of these bodies fail to address the needs of contemporary geopolitical realities, they say.
Also, for them the present definition of globalisation- the champion of free market- only translates to opening up of markets and free flow of resources. Production and manufacturing sectors along with technologies remain concentrated in the hands of a few. Hence, reforms for them spell out as structural overhaul, institutional accountability and diversified representation of the developing countries.
For the developed countries, reforms entail changing the very definition of a ‘developing’ countryeven the countries in G20 and other relatively advanced economies would not be allowed to seek relaxations under the ‘developing’ category while complying with the WTO norms. They seek to strengthen the enforcing mechanism of WTO, whereby member nations, irrespective of their economic standing or condition, would be liable to comply by asymmetric laws. The failure to do this would call for legal action.
At an event in New York on September 23, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said globalisation and multilateralism are the two words facing a lot of heat nowadays. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either of them.
What is challengeable is how they have been implemented. Has multilateralism failed us? I will say this form of multilateralism in the hands of these people (developed world) perhaps has not delivered,” he said.
Jaishankar said there is a lot of anger among the developing countries over the state of affairs at the international level. Supply-chain disruptions, food inflation, rising oil prices and sanction on Russia, Venezuela and Iran are hurting them the most, he said.
As India gears up to take over the presidency of G20, it will push for reforms in institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make them more attuned to the needs and aspirations of developing economies.
