Is Trade Negotiation under the WTO a Victim of Half-Hearted Strategies and Inconsistencies

Abstract

Since 1947 when the general agreement on tariff and Trade (GATT), a process initiated simple rules to govern the liberalisation of trade. The GATT from 1947 to 1994 has had eight rounds of negotiation, bringing mainly the commercial trade among the developed countries. More the five decades of liberalisation in tariffs under the GATT primarily focused on trade between the developed countries for the manufacturing sectors, excluding critical sectors like agricultural and textiles and clothing. By the late 1980s, the developed countries felt the need for a stronger multilateral organisation to monitor trade and resolve trade disputes (Anderson). The multilateral trade negotiations underwent a complete transformation under the Uruguay Round (1986–94) for the first time in the global commercial history, the developing and least developed countries brought under the commercial agreement platform. A series of challenges have emerged since the U.R. one of the fundamental aspects is the developmental differences between the membership. This study is one attempt to bring forward the nature of SPS-based MRL standards across major ten countries, accounting for nearly 40% of global trade. Although the whole study is based in it impart on agricultural products of India’s export interest. What are the permissible limits legally specified by the SPS Agreement of WTO and what have the countries been introducing as measures that may depart from a harmonised measure under the Codex. The gap in the WTO transparency provisions has allowed members notify under ‘regular’ or ‘emergency’ SPS notifications; however, these need to be treated separately as the impact on developing country exports are significant. The striking feature of all trade negotiations is that the ‘governments’ negotiated each one of such agreements, but it is operated by ‘firms’ – the most micro-element of the economy. The smooth conduct of trade agreements, be it between two countries (RTAs) or multilaterally at the WTO, is a reflection of how good, update and useful is the information flow between the actors in the economy. Therefore, the more formal the economy, the better chance for a trade deal to be successful and beneficial for all agents in the economy. Thus, the more formal an economy, there is a chance that such trade agreements may reflect the need of the actors. Stakeholder consultations are bridging this connection between the lowest agent of the economy and the negotiators. Therefore, a successful trade deal would depend upon how successfully the stakeholder consultations held within the country between the agents.