Economic Times ⁽²¹⁸⁾

The TRIPs Agreement has become an effective instrument of promoting more non-trade agenda by labour and environmental groups. They say the WTO must now do for workers and nature what it has already done for corporate interests. Economic Times, January 26, 2000 In a provocative column last week, Swaminathan Aiyar (ET, January 19, 2000) took the view that the inclusion of intellectual property rights (IPRs) into the World Trade Organization (WTO) was a good idea after all. He argued that IPRs have now become central to the evolution of world trade and as such belong into the Geneva-based institution. The veteran columnist has such good instincts that only rarely can one disagree with him. This is one of those occasions. At the outset, let me state that the opposition to the inclusion of IPRs into the WTO does not imply opposition to IPRs. Though India opposed the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which will eventually bring IPRs under the purview of the WTO, it has long had world-class legislation in copyrights. This legislation meets or exceeds the standards…

The road will be much rougher as reforms move into difficult areas such as banking. Nevertheless, the double-digit growth appears well within the grasp of the country. Economic Times, January 12, 2000 My millennium wish is for India to achieve a double-digit growth in the forthcoming decade. Having decisively freed itself from the trap of the ‘Hindu rate of growth’¾a term coined by my teacher and brilliant economist late Raj Krishna to refer to the country’s abysmally low growth rate during the 1960s and 1970s¾ the country should now join ranks with the East Asian tigers, which now include China. On the surface, the desirability of double-digit growth rate, as opposed to its feasibility, seems obvious. Yet, the case for it is not uncontested. In India where concerns with poverty reign supreme and many continue to see a conflict between growth and poverty reduction, even the desirability of high growth rates is under constant attack. Sceptics argue that a development strategy that focuses on growth counts on prosperity “trickling down” to the poor and is predestined to fail the latter. It will only make…

Given where the round was heading, even pro-free-trade economists such as myself are relieved for the moment Economic Times, December 13, 1999 Talking to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer during his visit to Seattle, Bill Clinton decided to take a long leap from his original demand for a WTO working group on labour standards and proceeded to tell the newspaper that the working group should define core standards, which should then be part of every trade agreement. “And ultimately,” he continued, “I would favour a system in which sanctions would come for violating any provision of a trade agreement.” According to many, this statement was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and sealed the fate of the negotiations. Truth be told, neither Clinton’s statement nor the (un) civil society groups to which it catered did any such thing. The camel had arrived Seattle with an already broken back. It was only the United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky who refused to confront the looming failure, painting an overly optimistic picture prior to the conference. But within a week, as the…

With the Seattle Ministerial meeting right around the corner, the United States has tabled a proposal for a working group on labour standards at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Economic Times, November 6, 1999 With the Seattle Ministerial meeting right around the corner, the United States has tabled a proposal for a working group on labour standards at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States wants the working group to prepare a report in two years on the relationship between international trade and employment, social protection and the so-called core labour standards that include child labour. It also wants the proposed working group to study the impact of derogations from national labour standards in export processing zones. Three years ago, at the conclusion of the Singapore Ministerial meeting, developing countries had taken a sigh of relief that the issue of labour standards had at last been delegated to the International Labour Organization. The Singapore Declaration, signed by all WTO members including the United States, provided ample grounds for this sense of relief. The sole paragraph dealing with labor standards…

Even large developing countries such as India seem to lack the capacity for systematic research on how best to promote their interests in trade negotiations. Economic Times, October 20, 1999 Located in Geneva, WTO is far and away from most developing-country capitals. Immediate, day-to-day domestic concerns in these capitals leave little room for long-term thinking on issues that continuously simmer at the WTO. Even large developing countries such as India seem to lack the capacity for systematic research on how best to promote their interests in trade negotiations. As a result, while developed countries gear up to launch yet another round of negotiations, our reaction is to oppose it entirely rather than shape its agenda according to our interests. Given the far-reaching implications of the decisions made under the auspices of the WTO, the need for conducting research on a continuous basis and developing long-term strategies cannot be overemphasized. Developed country members of WTO such as the United States and the European Union take this research very seriously. By the time they are ready to place a subject on the…