The Future of the World Trade Organization

The continued difficulties of the World Trade Organization to achieve further multilateral trade liberalization in the Doha Round negotiations have raised questions about its continued relevance. This paper firstly identifies and assesses the key developments in the Doha Round that have contributed to the present stalemate. Secondly, it presents several options that the organization could consider for defining its future work program, given the new realities of global economic engagement, especially the emergence of global production networks. Most importantly, the paper assesses the possibility of including new disciplines covering areas that can help the growth of these drivers of global economic integration. Such an initiative could include three sets of issue: trade facilitation measures, an equitable investment regime, and effective disciplines for curbing non-tariff barriers

Studies in Trade and Investment - AGRICULTURAL TRADE - PLANTING THE SEEDS OF REGIONAL LIBERALIZATION IN ASIA

this chapter reviews traditional arguments for trade liberalization and provides a closer look at the additional reasons for use of government intervention.Agricultural trade, government intervention, India

Studies in Trade and Investment - AGRICULTURAL TRADE - PLANTING THE SEEDS OF REGIONAL LIBERALIZATION IN ASIA

this chapter provides a critical review of the studies based on the LINKAGE Model, a variant of the CGE models, which have projected the possible outcomes of the Doha Round of Multilateral trade negotiations.Doha Round, LINKAGE Model, CGE model

Modelling the Doha Round Outcome: A Critical view

In a series of papers published during the past few years, World Bank economists have provided detailed projections by simulating the possible outcomes of the Doha Round negotiations. The projections have been obtained by using the LINKAGE Model, which is considered to be a global dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The latest version of the LINKAGE Model, viz. LINK6, which these papers have relied on, uses the Global Trade Analysis Program (GTAP). LINK6 incorporates 87 countries/regions and 57 sectors and uses a dataset that has been updated up to 2001. This latter feature of the model, according to the authors, has helped generation of far more realistic results than those that were using the earlier versions, which had incorporated data only up to 1997. This note attempts a critical assessment of the above-mentioned papers. At the outset, we would provide an analysis of the results that have been presented by looking at their implications for the developing countries in general and India, in particular. In the second part of the note, we would broadly allude to some of the methodological problems that are associated with the CGE models of the genre of the LINKAGE model. Our contention is that the limitations of these models, especially in terms of the assumptions on which they are based, deserve close scrutiny and that this dimension needs to be kept in view as the results obtained from studies are read.Doha Round Negotiations, WTO

Operation of FDI caps in India and corporate control mechanisms

While India has generally been following an open door FDI policy, a few areas are still subject to caps on FDI and/or specific government approval. One of the justifications for the same is the need to retain a degree of control over the operations of the investee companies in Indian hands. Earlier this year, the government specified the methodology for calculating direct and indirect foreign equity in Indian companies in order to remove ambiguities in calculating the extent of FDI in a company. Based on empirical evidence this paper argues that percentage of shares or proportion of directors do not necessarily represent the extent of control and more direct intervention would be required if the objectives of imposing the caps are to be achieved.FDI; corporate control, veto powers, India, joint control, joint ventures, corporate governance

FUTURE TRADE RESEARCH AREAS THAT MATTER TO DEVELOPING COUNTRY POLICYMAKERS

GATT, WTO, NTB

India's Recent Inward Foreign Direct Investment: An Assessment

Most often the reported FDI flows are accepted unquestioningly and are analysed and interpreted in a simplistic manner in spite of their many nuances. The discovery of some serious limitations and specific features of India’s FDI inflows adds a hitherto little discussed dimension which impacts the understanding of the flows significantly. The study, India’s Recent Inward Foreign Direct Investment: An Assessment, published in July 2018, vividly explains the various shortcomings and special features of the data using multiple examples and case studies and demonstrates that the annual aggregates cannot provide adequate guidance regarding the year-to-year changes. Nor do they truly reflect capacity creation in the economy. The problem turns out to be more acute at the sectoral level. The study conveys a strong message that the reporting mechanism and analysis have to be reshaped drastically in order to provide reliable guidance to policymakers and other national and international users. It could provide a template for understating the inflows into developing countries, in general

FDI in Multi-brand Retail Trade and the Safeguards

After a long and winding process, India opened the retail trade to foreign direct investment (RFDI) albeit with some caveats. The process, however, suggests that the case of RFDI provides a classic example of large global corporations succeeding in influencing public policy of developing countries and putting the regulatory system to stupor with the backing of powerful home governments. Starting from the mid-2000s when it started seeking to expand its global operations, there have been repeated attempts by Walmart to meet important relevant functionaries in India. Once the policy makers were convinced either on their own or due to the intense and sustained lobbying from abroad, the process has been unidirectional. The process also suggests that the protection offered by the safeguards could be illusory