Suresh Prabhu delivering keynote address on strategic alliance for WTO and trade remedies

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, said that India will work along with other member countries to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure that it remains an engine for global trade. Speaking at a conference on Strategic Alliance for WTO and Trade Remedies in New Delhi, he said that the multilateral trading system is under stress and number of fresh trade restrictive measures have surged which will affect global trade and economic growth.

Suresh Prabhu said that without WTO, trade, economy will not expand as it is the only organization dealing with global rules of trade between nations. The WTO acts as an essential pillar of global trade governance providing the framework of rules and practices that underpin some 98% of global trade today and is expected to provide rule based system as well as stability and predictability in world trade.

Suresh Prabhu informed that India is not for or against any country but desire to make WTO a forward looking organization, which is able to support a better global trade order.He said that during the last few months he has discussed substantive issues with over 100 Ministers of Trade and Commerce of various countries to evolve new reform agenda for WTO which will be acceptable to most the countries.

WTO reform urged to restore rule-based global trade and address rising trade restrictions, with India seeking consensus. The statement urges comprehensive WTO reform to maintain a rule-based global trading order amid rising trade-restrictive measures that threaten trade and growth. It stresses the multilateral trading system as the core framework providing stability and predictability, and describes India's pursuit of a forward-looking, consensus-based reform agenda developed through consultations with over one hundred trade ministers to strengthen WTO governance and trade remedies.