India Opposes Climate Change at WTO: Official

New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) India has strongly objected to the efforts of developed nations to include environmental or climate change issues at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stating that the matters can be dealt with under specialized multilateral environmental agreements, an official said.

In a session on trade and sustainable development in Abu Dhabi, the country conveyed that developing countries have differentiated responsibilities for the mitigation of climate change.

A team of Indian officials is in Abu Dhabi for the 13th ministerial conference of the WTO. Trade ministers of 164 member countries of the multilateral trade body are gathering to discuss wide-ranging issues such as agriculture and fisheries subsidies.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will also attend the meeting.

In the session, India stated that unilateral protectionist measures being taken by certain rich nations in the name of environmental protection are effectively nullifying the tightly negotiated balance of rights and obligations under the specialized multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), the official said.

These agreements provide flexibility to developing countries towards their Net Zero transition, equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) in the light of different national circumstances.

"Therefore, India does not support mainstreaming of environment/climate change issues at WTO which is being more suitably dealt with under the specialized MEAs," the official added.

On the issue of the rule book on industrial subsidies, India is of the view that these are new discussions which are initiated by a few members under the topic of trade and industrial policy in the last few months and there has not been enough discussion on the issue in the WTO among the members.

"It appears that this half-baked debate is an attempt by certain developed members to justify their policies of trade-distorting subsidies and protectionist unilateral trade measures in the name of the environment," the official added.

New Delhi has stated that such topics definitely warranted detailed deliberations among the existing WTO bodies by all Members before being brought to the consideration of the highest body of the WTO - the Ministerial Conference.

"While we would be willing to participate in such discussion in the respective bodies, India cannot commit to proposals that are vague, lack clarity and have not matured," the official added.