WTO chief urges India to support proposal on investment facilitation

Business Standard

2 days ago

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Tuesday urged India to support the China-led proposal on investment facilitation for development as several developing countries are backing the initiative.
The Director General of the Geneva-based body said she discussed several issues like WTO reforms and agriculture with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
The Indian minister is here on an official visit.
"We need India as a leader. India is a leading country, and India is doing well. So, India needs to open the way for other developing countries, for example, on investment facilitation for development, we want it to support, because so many developing countries - 90 out of the 126 who are members, would like to move with this," she told reporters here.
But for agriculture, "we also need" to listen to what India's issues are and try to be supportive.
A China-led group of 128 countries is pushing for the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) proposal. It will be binding for only the signatory members. India is against it and has opposed the initiative in the last 13th ministerial conference at Abu Dhabi as such agreements would dilute the multilateral nature of the 166-member organisation.
The IFD was first mooted in 2017 by China and other countries that depend heavily on Chinese investments, and countries with sovereign wealth funds are party to that pact. Among major countries, the US is also sitting out of the agreement.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
The WTO chief is here to participate in a mini-ministerial meeting, which is scheduled on the margins of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Ministerial Council Meeting here. It was convened by Australia.
Trade ministers from about 25 countries, including India, Australia, and Singapore, are here to attend the meeting.
"We are invited by Australia to be able to talk to each other, (about) the possible reforms to the WTO," Iweala said, adding that the multilateral trading system has been disrupted in a way it hasn't been before.
"But guess what? Sometimes I see challenges as opportunities, and I think this is a very good opportunity for the WTO members to look at what are those things that work and should be kept and there are many," she said.
She added that still three quarters of world goods trade is taking place on WTO terms, on MFN (most favoured nation) terms and members want to safeguard that.
"But there are things that also don't work. And when you have this kind of disruption, you ask yourself, what is it that needs to be reformed about the WTO? What is it that developing countries like India don't like? Let them put that on the table. What is it that the US doesn't like? Put that on the table. What do Africans not like...? Put that on the table. Let's collect this. And then let's try to reform it," she said.
This meeting assumes significance against the backdrop of the 14th ministerial conference is scheduled for March 26-29 in Cameroon, a Central African nation.