New Delhi is Hosting WTO Ministerial Meeting of Developing Countries

India will host a WTO Ministerial meeting of developing countries on 13-14 May in New Delhi.

Sixteen developing countries, Six Least Developed Countries (LDC)(Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Brazil, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, China, Egypt, Guatemala, Guyana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda)and DG, WTO are participating in the meeting.

Ministers from Bangladesh, CAR and South Africa have confirmed their participation. Vice Ministers, senior officials and ambassadors will be representing other countries.

The Two-day meeting will be interactive in order to provide an opportunity for the Ministers to discuss various issues and the way forward.

On the first day, there will be a meeting of senior officers of the participating countries followed by a dinner hosted by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry for the heads of delegations.

On the 2nd day, the Ministerial Meeting will be held.

The meeting is being held at a time when the multilateral rule-based-trading system is facing serious and grave challenges.

In the recent past, there have been increasing unilateral measures and countermeasures by members, deadlock in key areas of negotiations and the impasse in the Appellate Body, which threaten the very existence of Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO and impacts the position of the WTO as an effective multilateral organisation.

The current situation has given rise to demands from various quarters to reform the WTO.

This meeting at New Delhi is an effort to bring together the developing countries and Least Developed Countries on a platform for sharing common concerns on various issues affecting the WTO and work together to address these issues, the government said in an official release.