WTO likely to release India's trade policy review report in July
In this regard, a team of officials from the WTO Secretariat was in New Delhi last week. In preparing its report, the Secretariat seeks the cooperation of the member countries. India has been a WTO member since 1995.
360° Perspective Analysis
Deep-dive into Geography, Polity, Economy, History, Environment & Social dimensions — AI-powered, on-demand
Context
The is currently preparing India's Trade Policy Review (TPR) report, which is expected to be released in July. The report will assess India's trade practices, macroeconomic conditions, and policy institutions, noting significant growth in India's share of global merchandise and commercial services exports over the last two decades.
UPSC Perspectives
International Relations
The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) is a central pillar of the , mandated by an annex of the 1994 which established the organization. Rather than acting as a punitive or dispute settlement body, the TPRM functions as a peer-review system designed to foster transparency and predictability in the multilateral trading system. The frequency of these reviews is directly tied to a country's share in global trade. Under revised rules, the top four global traders (the United States, China, Japan, and the ) are reviewed every three years. India falls into the next tier of the 16 largest traders, requiring a review every five years, while all other members are reviewed every seven years. For UPSC aspirants, understanding this mechanism is vital because it illustrates how international institutions use surveillance and transparency, rather than just legal sanctions, to discourage protectionism and ensure that domestic policies align with international commitments.
Economic
The upcoming review highlights crucial structural shifts in India's macroeconomic landscape and its evolving integration into global markets. Between 2005 and 2024, India's share of global merchandise exports grew from 1 percent to 1.8 percent, while its share in commercial services exports more than doubled from 2 percent to 4.3 percent. This data starkly illustrates the dual nature of India's external trade: a dominant, highly competitive services sector (driven by IT and business processes) contrasting with a slowly growing merchandise manufacturing base. From a UPSC perspective, this structural imbalance is central to India's economic challenges. To boost the merchandise share and reduce the trade deficit, the government has launched initiatives to integrate India into Global Value Chains (GVCs). The TPR will critically analyze how these domestic industrial policies impact international trade flows and whether they foster genuine competitiveness or rely on import substitution.
Governance
A Trade Policy Review subjects a nation's domestic trade governance and policymaking institutions to rigorous international scrutiny. In India, foreign trade is primarily governed by the , which drafts the overarching Foreign Trade Policy to guide export promotion and import regulation. During the TPR process, member countries closely examine not just India's tariff rates, but also its non-tariff barriers, agricultural support programs, and intellectual property regimes. Programs like Make in India or public stockholding for food security frequently invite critical questions from trading partners who scrutinize them for potential trade-distorting effects. This exercise compels the government to defend its sovereign economic decisions on a global platform, ensuring that domestic welfare policies do not inadvertently violate multilateral obligations codified under treaties like the .