What's in WTO for us?
By Gopal K Agarwal,
During the 18th century, imperialism
had a physical form. Countries which had military power colo- nased other
countries and exploited their resources. Today developed countries exercise
control over poorer ones in a more subtle way. International financial institutions
act as tools in the overall game plan. The situation is, however, fast changing.
If the WTO is to be true in its
objective of opening and liberalising international trade with free market
access and without domestic and export subsidy, India would stand to gain. We
have to keep in mind that the WTO is about negotiations in international trade.
It is not a unilateral charter of demands; it is not our wish list. In any
trade negotiations we have to proceed from the present stage keeping in mind
our long-term objectives. To accomplish our goals, we should enter into
strategic alliance with developing countries with similar concerns. Our
emphasis should be on translating the spirit of the Doha Declaration in order
to protect the interests of these countries.
We have to protect our agriculture,
retail trade and small-scale sector from the onslaught of international manufacturers
With growing food production and burgeoning food stocks in India, if we are
forced to remove tariff barriers in the agricultural sector, it could create
problems. Our negotiators should insist on a minimum import quota based on GDP
as prescribed under the Agreement on Agriculture earlier.
The true benefit of the WTO will be
achieved in the services sector. We have to push for the opening up of the
services sector under Mode 3 and Mode 4- that is, there should be free mobility
of manpower across countries. There should be complete reciprocity with
developed nations in areas such as accoun- tancy, health services, legal services, tourism and travel services. Mutual recognition agreements should be put
in place so that our professionals get recognition and opportunities abroad. In
addition, India should negotiate to place agriculture workers on the Mode 4
list.
The basic problem with the WTO is
that it is talking of liberal ising international trade through reduction in
tariff and non-tariff barriers without emphasizing on reduction in trade-distorting subsidies by developed countries. Another major concern before the
WTO is the misuse of TRIPS, or intellectual property rights. There are several
cases where patent rights have been given to firms over existing traditional
knowledge by the US Patent and Trademark office. This problem is exacerbated by
the fact that many developing nations, including India, have not yet managed to
document their traditional knowledge
In the area of public health, we should insist on major diseases being brought within the ambit of compulsory licensing. The US, thankfully, has dropped its demand that disease coverage be limited to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. This expansion is important from the point of view of India's health needs as well as the development of our pharmaceutical sector and its exports to other developing countries
Recent attempts by developed
countries to push additional agenda issues called Singapore issues such as a multilateral
agreement on investment, competition policy, transparency in government
procurement procedures, industrial tariff, trade and environment, and labour standards, too, should be resisted.
The notion that India stands to lose
under the WTO regime stems from an underestimation of our abilities. We always
talk of our glorious past; this is an opportune time to realise it. India today
is not what it was some twenty, twenty-five years back- a weak nation at the
mercy of superpowers, ruled by a diffident leadership. We should sit
together, apply our minds, identify our strengths and weaknesses and negotiate
accordingly. The WTO can be a catalyst in the process of reverse imperialism.
(The writer is member, Central Economic Cell, BJP)
