India, EU step up push for WTO reforms

Washington: India and the European Union plan to intensify cooperation on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO), with both sides saying their newly concluded free trade agreement has created a stronger platform to jointly pursue changes to the global trading body amid growing uncertainty in international commerce.

Senior trade negotiators from India and the European Commission said the issue will feature prominently during the next meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Brussels on July 15, where ministers are expected to discuss a common approach to strengthening the multilateral trading system.

“There is a track in our engagement on the Trade and Technology Council on WTO as well,” said Darpan Jain, India’s Chief Negotiator for the EU-India Free Trade Agreement, during a discussion hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Fundamentally, I think, we both believe in strengthening WTO, but we also believe that there is a reform which is required,” Jain said. “Especially in the current context, my feeling is both India and the EU recognise that we need to work together.”

At the same time, he acknowledged the difficulty of overhauling an organisation with a broad and diverse membership.

“As you know, WTO is a body which has 164 members, so very difficult to hatch consensus there. But I think our efforts are in that direction,” Jain said.

Christophe Kiener, the European Union’s chief negotiator for the agreement, said Brussels is already preparing concrete proposals as part of ongoing discussions in Geneva on WTO reform.

“We are working on a couple or three written contributions that we are about to table in the context of ongoing discussions in Geneva on the reform of the World Trade Organization,” Kiener said.

Follow for more details: munsifdaily.com

He added that the India-EU Trade and Technology Council provides a dedicated platform for bilateral coordination on the issue.

“The Trade and Technology Council between the EU and India foresees that there is one strand of work that is about our bilateral dialogue on how to reform the WTO,” he said. “This is actually something that ministers will take up next week when they meet in the context of the TTC on the 15th of July in Brussels.”

Kiener expressed hope that the newly forged trade partnership between India and the European Union could eventually translate into broader multilateral cooperation.

“I would just hope that now that we have climbed the Everest of all bilateral agreements, we could… jointly, I don’t know, go to the moon and indeed successfully clinch a multilateral trade deal that would enhance the legal certainty multilaterally in the WTO,” he said.

The comments came just months after India and the European Union concluded negotiations on one of the world’s largest free trade agreements, covering goods, services, investment, digital trade and supply-chain diversification.

Both sides have described the agreement as a strategic partnership that extends beyond commerce to include technology, security, mobility and clean energy cooperation.

Jain said the Trade and Technology Council has become an important mechanism for advancing cooperation beyond the free trade agreement, covering areas such as technology, innovation and broader economic engagement.

He said ministers meeting in Brussels next week are expected to pursue “a very ambitious plan” to deepen collaboration and deliver tangible outcomes across multiple sectors.