WTO and Trade Policy

The Trade Policy and World Trade Organization (WTO) research and capacity building project was developed to enhance trade policy and WTO research at ICRIER and to provide Indian policymakers with a deeper understanding of how to take forward India’s interests in the multilateral trading system. The main objectives of the research programme are to:

Engage in policy-oriented research; Assist the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India in policy making; Constructively engage with stakeholders at regular intervals; Organize stakeholder meetings to elicit suggestions on the possibilities of and opportunities for agreement in multilateral trade negotiations; and Help India to effectively participate in the reform of global governance and trade agenda.

Since the Doha Round has been confronted with an impasse, which is political in its origin and defies solutions at the technical level, the scope of trade policy research has been broadened. Two studies on the preferential tariffs of the industrialized countries, namely: “Is the GSP Scheme of the EU Benefiting India’s Exports” and “Is the US GSP Scheme Benefiting India’s Exports” were completed. The studies analyse the preferential schemes from the perspective of India. A third study, “Dispute Settlement in the WTO, Developing Countries and India,” which analyses the functioning of the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO was also completed.

Dissemination activities include the publication of a quarterly, Trade Policy and WTO Newsletter, which reviews critical developments in trade and investment policies in the national, regional and multilateral spheres besides featuring articles on selected subjects relevant to trade policy.

Plurilateral Initiatives in the WTO: