India at WTO: Strengthening Global Trade & Key Issues

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) India will push for further strengthening of the WTO at the upcoming ministerial meeting in Cameroon so that it can play an important role in promoting global trade at a time when the world is witnessing turmoil due to various geopolitical factors, officials said on Thursday.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will attend the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) being held from 26 to 29 March 2026 in Yaounde, Cameroon.

India will also take up other issues, including the continuation of the 28-year moratorium on e-commerce transmissions, fisheries subsidies and the China-led proposal for an Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) agreement, officials said.

Discussions around tariffs imposed by the Trump administration may also be taken up by the WTO member countries, they added.

The US has recently imposed tariffs on various countries.


"We believe in multilateral trade and that WTO needs to be further strengthened, and WTO needs to play a more important role in global trade and do whatever it takes to make WTO more important, more effective and more relevant," they said.

According to officials, one of the key challenges in e-commerce has been how to define it, and the members need to come together to define e-commerce conclusively, because once there is a clear commitment, these definitions also become very important.

Regarding the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement, officials said there is a proposal to see whether that can get into Annex 4 as a unilateral agreement, and there needs to be explicit consensus and deep discussions on the issue.

The IFD Agreement provides global benchmarks to support the efforts of WTO members who are parties to the agreement to improve the investment and business climate and make it easier for investors in all sectors of the economy to invest, conduct their day-to-day business and expand their operations.

The IFD initiative boasts the participation of 128 WTO members, spanning all regions, representing three-quarters of the organisation's membership.

According to officials, agriculture will figure prominently among the discussions.