New Delhi: India on Wednesday called on developing and least developed nations to collectively work to address global trade challenges such as tariff barriers, unilateral environmental restrictions, and hurdles in the services sector.
Addressing the 16th session of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said: “It is time for the Global South to speak with one voice on concerns that impact all of us”.
He said the world is currently volatile, marked by numerous uncertainties, challenges, and ambiguities in the global trading system.
“We are living in a world marked by a profound trust deficit, whether in multilateral institutions, different international bodies, amongst nations and multiple critical challenges confront us almost on a daily basis. These challenges are multi-faceted.
“It could be the erosion of confidence in the rules based trading system, a lot of non-market practices coming into play, tariff and non-tariff barriers to free trade. There is over-concentration of supply chains, both at the source and at times on the demand side,” Goyal said.
He added that there is dilution of the special and differential treatment that was provided to developing and less developed countries (LDCs) when the WTO (World Trade Organisation) was originally set up.
The minister also raised concerns over barriers such as unilateral environmental restrictions (carbon tax) that certain countries and geographies are introducing, technologies that are dividing the world, as well as the restrictive policies and barriers in the services sector.
These issues “are all out there in the open for all of us to see and make an effort to address”, he said.
These challenges affect the less developed world, the developing world “the most” because “they have a development agenda. They are looking for growth. They are looking to come out of poverty. Many countries are looking to provide a better quality of life for their people”.
In this uncertain world, Goyal said, efforts to eliminate poverty, and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals become a casualty. “I think we all need to have a reset, a new way to address these challenges.”