India-World Trade Organization-warns-unilateralism

Why World Trade Organization in news

India issued a warning on Monday that the developed world’s attempts to add “non-trade issues” to the World Trade Organization agenda might cause the multilateral trading system to become “fragmented.”
India’s commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said: “Bringing issues like gender and MSMEsin the realm of World Trade Organization discussions was not practical because these issues were being discussed in other relevant international organisations already.”
Developing countries seek appropriate policy space to find solutions to their concerns, some of which have been unaddressed for a long time. They require flexibility in the existing World Trade Organization agreements to overcome the constraints faced by them in their industrialisation, the secretary noted.
official had expressed serious concerns regarding the increasing use of protectionist and unilateral trade measures, which, he said, are sought to be justified in the name of environmental protection.
Secretary raised issue about latest regulation has been implemented by the European Union through Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that seeks to tax high carbon emissions during the production stage of an imported product.

Other developed countries have also started considering such mechanisms that will translate into high tariff walls to imports from developing countries. If exports of developing countries to these markets get impacted, it will also be a setback to their industrialization efforts, He added.

The European Union (EU) has announced that its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be introduced in its transitional phase from October 2023, which will levy a carbon tax on imports of products made from the processes which are not Environmentally sustainable or non-Green.
CBAM will translate into a 20-35 % tax on select imports into the EU starting 1st January 2026.
CBAM is part of the “Fit for 55 in 2030 package”, which is the EU’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels in line with the European Climate Law.
In order to implement the CBAM, importers will need to register the number of commodities they import into the EU each year, together with the embedded Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.
The price of the CBAM certificates, which will be required to be surrendered by importers in order to offset these emissions, will be determined by the weekly average auction price of EU Emission Trading System (ETS) allowances in euros per tone of CO2 emitted.

About WTO:
- The World Trade Organization is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations.
- Location: Geneva, Switzerland
- Established: 1 January 1995
- Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)
- Membership: 164members representing 98 per cent of world trade
Functions of WTO:
- Administering WTO trade agreements
- Forum for trade negotiations
- Handling trade disputes
- Monitoring national trade policies
- Technical assistance and training for developing countries
- Cooperation with other international organizations
Decision-making:
- The WTO’s top decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference. Below this is the General Council and various other councils and committees.
Ministerial conferences
- Ministerial conferences usually take place every two years.
General Council
- The General Council is the top day-to-day decision-making body. It meets a number of times a year in Geneva.