Agenda for India at WTO | CUTS International – Consumer Unity & Trust Society

About CUTS-CITEE
Established in 1983, Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) has been involved in several areas of public interest, working simultaneously at the grassroots, national, regional and international levels, with the mission Consumer sovereignty in the framework of social justice and equality, within and across borders.
In 1991, CUTS ventured into the area of trade and development due to a lack of capacity among consumer groups in the South. There were two main reasons for CUTS to engage in international work on international trade and development issues. First, the demand emanating from various constituencies in the developing world to analyse, inform and educate them, and often advocate on their behalf. Secondly, the understanding within the organisation, that in an increasingly globalising world, as many of the problems have their source at the international level, the solutions too would lie there, or at least a better understanding will help resolve problems locally.
With this as backdrop, the CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment (CUTS-CITEE) was established in 1996, to carry out high level political economic analyses on trade and development issues, advocate at the appropriate fora and strengthen capacities of the civil society in developing countries.
Since its inception, the work programme of CUTS-CITEE has three distinct and interwoven strands:

Creating and building long-term capacity to address issues of and the complex linkages between trade, investment, environment and development from a Southern perspective through policy research, advocacy, networking, cooperation, and information dissemination and outreach.
Analysing actions of international/inter-governmental institutions and national governments in this arena so as to enhance their responsiveness and acountability to the people and civil society at large.
Providing the upward and downward linkages with grassroots organisations to convey their views and concerns to policy makers at national and international levels, and vice versa.

Background
Given the above-stated strands, the Centre has been conducting research, dialogues, advocacy, networking, information dissemination and outreach etc.
During 1996-97, the Centre had organised four policy dialogues in India to discuss the emerging issues before the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Two of these were organised just before the first WTO Ministerial Conference at Singapore, December 1996 and one policy dialogue following this meeting. Recommendations for organising these dialogues emerged from a Roundtable Conference, held in Nagarkot, Nepal in May 1996.
In all, there were 87 participants in these dialogues, out of which 36 were civil society representatives. People from the government, media, business organisations and research institutions also participated in these dialogues.
The objective was: “To develop a better understanding on the existing and emerging issues at the World Trade Organisation, their impact on India and evolve a consensus on India’s approach through a structured dialogue among policy makers, civil society representatives, experts and mediapersons.” The aim was to enable India to adopt a proactive stand at the international trade fora in the future, and also address the crucial need for strengthening of domestic policy to meet the challenges of globalisation and liberalisation.
The outcome of the policy dialogues was a set of recommendations on general and specific issues, i.e. action points for advocacy. In all there were 42 recommendations, which were classified into the following sections:

General issues
Market access and trade liberalisation
TRIPs, biological diversity and biotechnology
Trade, investment and competition
Trade and Environment
Trade and labour standards.

In December 1997, the document, ‘Agenda for India at the WTO – Need to be Proactive,’ taking into account the above-mentioned recommendations, was prepared and distributed as widely as possible. Since then the Centre has been doing advocacy with policy makers, trade experts, business organisations and mediapersons to take on board appropriate strategies to make those recommendations into realities.
More than three years have passed and now its time to revisit those recommendations, in order to get an idea of the Centre’s advocacy efforts. The following sections analyse the recommendations, the action points, outcome and leftover, and have also been graded as follows: A+ Highly successful
A Successful
A- Moderately successful
B+ Above average
B Average
B- Below average
This exercise found that out of 42 recommendations, 13 cases we were considered ‘highly successful’ while 12 cases were ‘successful’. In four cases, we were ‘moderately successful. In six cases, the success was either ‘above average’ or ‘average’. In only one case, the success was ‘below average’.

GENERAL ISSUES

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
India has to evolve a proactive agenda with political economic arguments on existing issues at the WTO	Evolve specifically designed strategy by involving all concerned actors through a series of dialogue Ministry of Commerce	Several stakeholder meetings have been conducted	More dialogues are to be organised to evolve a proactive agenda	A^–
A National Trade Policy Council should be established. Working/Expert Groups on issues should be set up, which may co-opt experts in the field.	Establish a National Trade Policy Council Ministry of Commerce	National Advisory Committee on International Trade has been formed and meetings were regularly conducted Specific Working Groups have also been formed and meetings held	To involve other ministries in this Committee	A⁺
Impress upon the polity the need to implement our commitments under the WTO while fully utilising the flexibilities provided in the Agreements to safeguard and promote India’s interests	Build positive public opinion with well-argued position papers, seminars and strategically placed articles in leading English and local language newspapers Business chambers, NGOs	Politicians have been informed through · regular debates conducted by business chambers, NGOs and the government · seminars, and · articles	Convince politicians to take interest and approach trade issues in pro-active manner	A
Take stock of existing issues at the WTO and what needs to be done	Take structural initiative by involving various ministries, business and NGOs Ministry of Commerce	Various initiatives have been taken by involving all actors	More interactive efforts are needed	A
Conduct research on the impact of existing and emerging issues at the WTO to enhance India’s preparedness	Prepare research papers on specific issues and maintain contact points in concerned ministries Ministry of Commerce, research institutes, NGOs	Research papers were prepared, distributed and dialogues were organised regularly	Follow-up research and structured advocacy are to be conducted regularly	A⁺
Clarity in defining India’s strategic economic interests and better articulation of long-term goals	Develop a Vision 2020 document and conduct debates through a structured interactive strategy Ministry of Commerce	Vision 2020 has been prepared	To evolve a structured interactive strategy	B⁺
Better coordination of different ministries on inter-linked issues	Establish an Inter-ministerial Committee of Secretaries Ministry of Commerce	Inter-ministerial Committee of Secretaries has been formed and meetings were regularly conducted	To generate required interest in other ministries on trade issues	A⁺
Use bargaining chips in the international political arena and build sector-specific alliances	Identify specific areas for bargaining for better terms under the existing WTO acquis Ministry of Commerce	Specific areas and bargaining chips have been identified	More efforts are needed in taking them forward	B
Involve United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in policy formulation at the WTO	Take lead on the issue of strengthening UNCTAD in a proactive manner Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Taken various steps, including conducting issue-specific seminars to strengthen UNCTAD’s role in trade policy matter	More issue-specific seminars need to be conducted and results to be taken forward	A^–
Help least developed countries with better market access for their products	Provide zero tariff concessions to LDCs Ministry of Commerce	Efforts are going on this regard, particularly for South Asian countries	Concessions are to be extended to African LDCs and results to be monitored	A
Help business to understand WTO issues better	Prepare WTO guides for business Research institute, NGOs	Several guides have been prepared (CII-Business Guide on WTO, CUTS-LSE Training of Business Leaders, WTO Audit of Indian Industries) and distributed widely	Need to reach out to the business community at large and at various levels, especially small and medium enterprises	A⁺
Concerted efforts to build capacities of business chambers, academia, NGOs and mediapersons	Discuss the issue in the policy making bodies of the Government Ministry of Commerce	Capacity building efforts are on and in a coordinated manner	Much more interaction among different actors are needed	A
Train mediapersons on trade issues for unbiased and well-informed knowledge	Expose and conduct media workshops, including inviting them in seminars etc Research institutes, NGOs, business chambers, Ministry of Commerce	Mediapersons have been trained on trade policy issues by CUTS, government and others on a regular basis, which is visible in national newspapers	Provide more exposure to Indian language journalists so that they write in an objective manner	A
Operationalise specific recommendations	Prepare a detailed action plan for circulation to all actors Ministry of Commerce	Plan of action has been prepared and discussed widely	Need to implement the plan of action and monitor it regularly so that necessary revision can be done at appropriate time	A
Enhance the national economic research budget with contribution from government and business	Address the Planning Commission and business chambers on creating higher outlays for research Ministry of Commerce, NGOs	Planning Commission has created a corpus fund of Rs.100 crore (US$ 22 million) for conducting research	More in-depth, field-based research needs to be conducted	A⁺

MARKET ACCESS AND TRADE LIBERALISATION

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
Pressurise industrialised countries to initiate structural adjustments, particularly in textiles and agriculture, to open up markets as mandated by the WTO	Conduct political analyses through structured consultations with all actors and adopt appropriate advocacy strategies Ministry of Commerce	Political analyses have been done	Advocacy needs to be more focussed	A
Replace anti-dumping measures from the provisions of WTO by appropriate competition legislation	Take appropriate steps on the issue and exploit the divisions in the industrialised countries Ministry of Commerce	Steps have been identified	Advocacy strategy to be evolved for seeking allies at the different levels	A
Seek further liberalisation of agricultural trade	Take appropriate steps in consultation with the Cairns Group of Countries Ministry of Commerce	Consultation is going including the use of bargaining chips to get better market access	More focussed approach is needed	A⁺
Study the effects of tariff escalation on development and environment	Use the study as a basis for taking market access initiatives in the future negotiations at the WTO Research institutes, NGOs, Ministry of Commerce	Studies have been done and used by the Government of India to advocate at the WTO for the rectification of tariff structures for different commodity groups	Results of the studies need to taken forward at appropriate levels	A⁺
Maintain a constant vigil on the emerging non-tariff barriers and strategise for the future	Identify and analyse major trade barriers hindering market access and trade liberalisation Ministry of Commerce, Business, Research institutes, NGOs	Studies on non-tariff barriers affecting India’s exports have been and are being conducted by CUTS and other agencies and appropriate strategies are taken	Strategies are to be implemented at the political level by seeking allies	A⁺

TRIPs, BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
WTO-compatible amendments to the Patent Act with appropriate safeguards	Organise debates on the issue before amending the Patent Act Ministry of Commerce	Public debates have been organised before placing the amended Patent Bill before the Parliament	Awareness generation at various levels on intellectual property rights and their implications for the economy	A⁺
Enact a sui generis legislation to protect plant varieties	Coordinate the formulation of such a legislation Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs, Research institutes	The formulation of such a bill is under progress as public debates continues	Advocacy for taking into account public interest issues while preparing the bill	B
Strengthen competition legislation to cope with monopolistic situation arising out of patent exploitation	Take appropriate actions at various levels Ministry of Finance (Department of Company Affairs)	A new Competition Bill has been prepared, which has not taken into account the concerns raised	Need to sensitise and educate policy makers on linkages between IPRs and competition	B
Need for a public debate on the definition of micro-organisms	Organise the debate and study the linkages between the Convention on Biological Diversity and TRIPs Research institute, NGOs, Ministry of Science and Technology (Department of Biotechnology)	Public debates are in the process	Focussed studies need to be completed and taken forward at the appropriate levels	B⁺
Simplify and strengthen the national patents system	Analyse the drawbacks and take appropriate actions Ministry of Industry	Drawbacks have been analysed and the amended law has taken them into account	Monitor the implementation of the new law	B⁺
Greater public vigilance on patent applications	Develop appropriate mechanisms while involving NGOs in the process Ministry of Industry, NGOs	Mechanisms have been developed	Ensure NGO involvement in the process	B⁺
Prepare well-argued position papers for the review of TRIPs	Commission such papers for advancing the issues Ministry of Commerce, Research institutes, NGOs	Position papers have been prepared	Concerted efforts are needed to take the arguments forward	B⁺
Analyse and assess domestic legislation which have an impact upon biological diversity	Draw up a strategy for analyses and public debates Research institutes, NGOs	Strategic analysis has been made, and public debates have been organised	A need for a more focussed effort	A

TRADE, INVESTMENT AND COMPETITION

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
Discuss implications of international investment agreements	Conduct in-depth research Ministry of Commerce, research institutes, NGOs	Some research has been conducted and the results were discussed	In-depth research and advocacy are required	A
Strengthen domestic policies and legislation governing investment, competition and consumer welfare	Amend/enact legislation and organise public debates Ministry of Commerce	Enactment of the new competition legislation is on the cards and consumer protection legislation is being amended	More efforts are needed to take into account investment and consumer welfare issues	B
Explore the development of international competition policy to safeguard the interests of developing countries	Needs to initiate and support discussions on this issue at the WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy Ministry of Commerce	Taking part in the discussions at the WTO Working Group	Need to be pro-active in raising development dimensions vis-à-vis competition and highlight developing countries’ concerns	A^–
Revive the discussions on the UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations	Demand revival of the discussions and seek allies in other developing countries	Not much efforts have been made	Advocate at the appropriate level to revive the Code	B^–
Explore intra-OECD positions on multilateral agreement on investment and discuss them tactically with the OECD members	Alert Indian missions to meet the appropriate persons in the Economic Ministries of OECD Governments to gain a better understanding Ministry of Commerce	Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) at the OECD level was aborted	Issue is not yet dead and diluted version is coming up at the WTO, thus preparation is necessary	A⁺
Prepare an alternative vision of a MAI and gain support through advocacy	Commission research on the issue and organise public debates Ministry of Commerce, research institutes, NGOs	Prepared and distributed materials while organising a series of public debates globally	Generate awareness about the alternate version of MAI while continuing advocacy	A⁺

TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
Hold consultations with stakeholders to take stock and evolve an appropriate response	Take positive steps and organise regular meetings to design an appropriate action plan Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Environment & Forests	Consultations have been held, and an action plan has been designed	Advance the action plan at the political level while seeking allies	A⁺
Garner support for excluding globally beneficial, environment-friendly technologies from intellectual property rights	Analyse the issues in a coordinated manner, identify allies and design appropriate advocacy strategies Ministry Environment & Forests, NGOs	Some analysis have been done	Analysis needs to be done for designing and implementing advocacy strategy	B
Adopt national environmental standards to minimise adverse effects of environment-related trade measures	Ensure proper participation in the standards setting process Ministry of Environment & Forests	Participation of consumer organisations in the standard setting process has been ensured	Concerted efforts are needed to make national standards compatible with the international standards	A^–
Advocate for the adoption of unambiguous rules and notifications relating to trade in domestically prohibited goods	Conduct research and outreach on the issue and seek allies at the international level Ministry of Commerce, NGOs	Research is going on	Appropriate advocacy strategy is to be designed for political push while also seeking allies	B

TRADE AND LABOUR STANDARDS

Recommendations	Action Point/Target	Outcome	What is yet to be Done?	Grade
Guard against linkage between trade and labour standards	Assert that labour standards should not be linked with trade Ministry of Commerce, NGOs	Vocal against linking labour standards with international trade and clearly articulated India’s position	Continue dialogues and advocacy on issues of linkage between trade and labour standards and find out a globally acceptable solution	A⁺
Take steps to effectively implement labour welfare legislation	Make holistic efforts to improve labour welfare in the country Ministry of Labour	Labour Commission has recommended appropriate steps that the Government has accepted	More reforms are required, thus advocacy efforts should continue	A
Prepare for multilateral initiatives in case social clause is discussed at the WTO	Conduct research and identify appropriate advocacy options Ministry of Commerce, NGOs, business chambers	Several research projects have been conducted and advocacy is in process	Discuss various options at the national level, by involving all relevant stakeholders, including NGOs	A
Prepare appropriate communication strategies to place the counterfactuals in the right context	Analyse and collate the counterfactuals and design communications strategies Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Labour, NGOs, business chambers	Counterfactuals are being prepared	Need to develop a strategy to improve communication with governments, trade unions, NGOs, academics, and media persons	B⁺

Contact CITEE
CUTS Centre For International Trade, Economics & Environment (CITEE) D–217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park,
Jaipur 302 016, India,
Ph: +91(0)141-22207 482
Fax: 91.141.2282485
Email: cuts@sancharnet.in,citee@cuts.org