India joins Russia on concerns over plastic trade rules at WTO

New Delhi: India has joined Russia to raise a concern regarding potential conflicts between future global rules on trade in plastics products and WTO norms, an official said on Wednesday.

The issue was flagged by Russia during a meeting of a WTO (World Trade Organisation) Committee on Market Access on November 19-20.

Russia has raised concerns regarding potential conflict between future rules on trade in plastics products and WTO rules. According to Moscow, an upcoming meeting of the UN's Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution in Busan, Korea, will consider attempts by some countries to adopt provisions aimed at establishing limits of production, trade and consumption of all kinds of plastics.

It has stated that if such a scenario unfolds, fundamental WTO rules such as bound tariffs, national treatment, most-favoured nation treatment, the prohibition of quantitative restrictions, as well as technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules may no longer apply to trade in plastic materials.