Answer to Question #60662 in Finance for Doltsee

Question

What are the current issues concerning India in WTO? Are multilateralism and
regionalism compatible?

Answer 1

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. India has been member of GATT since 1948; hence it was party to Uruguay Round and a founding member of WTO. On issues like investment and competition policy, India feels that having a multilateral agreement would be a serious impingement on the sovereign rights of countries. To an extent, of course, this is inherent in any multilateral treaty, but investment is seen as an area in which ceding sovereign rights would leave governments, particularly developing country governments, with too little room for maneuver in directing investments into areas of national priority.