India would support efforts to improve the working of the World Trade Organisation but its key pillars like special and differential treatment for less developed and developing nations, equal voice and dispute settlement mechanism should be retained while undertaking WTO reforms, an official said.
The Geneva-based 164-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a multilateral body which formulates rules for global exports and imports and adjudicates disputes between two or more than two countries on trade-related issues.
WTO reforms is one of the key issues which would figure in the forthcoming ministerial meeting. The four-day Ministerial Conference is scheduled to start from June 12 in Geneva. Last meeting was held in Argentina in 2017.
Ministerial Conference is the highest decision-making body of the WTO.
“We believe that WTO is an important organisation. Its multi-lateral nature should never be affected and therefore we support any efforts to improve its working. But the pillars of the WTO which is -- special and differential treatment for the less developed and developing nations, consensus based approach that is the equal voice that every member has, transparency requirements, rule of law and dispute settlement mechanism -- all these pillars of the WTO should be maintained when we are trying to do WTO reforms,” the official said.
“So we are going to try and focus to bring the WTO reform agenda to be a more focused agenda and maintaining these pillars and these disciplines,” the official added.