Key Points
However, any opening up of the WTOs inter-governmental structure to direct engagement by external stakeholders would run the risk of resource-rich industries or NGOs gaining access while MSMEs, farmers or fish-workers from the developing world get marginalized..
The MC-11 had opened up WTO processes for plurilateral discussions between a few groups of members, a significant departure from the practice of multilateral negotiations..
Of these, the need for disciplines on DR is embedded in the WTOs General Agreement for Trade in Services, and India had been a proponent of multilateral negotiations till about 2011..
Members like India and South Africa have stayed out of those joint initiatives as a matter of principlethat such plurilateral initiatives drive a wedge in the framework of multilateralism and put on hold the unfinished business of mandated negotiations, such as the one on public stock holding for food security..
Also crucial is a need to call out unilateral trade measures such as the European Unions (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which, by mandating that imported products meet the same level of emission norms that the EU implements, runs counter to the balance of differential commitments under the Paris Agreement..
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