India in the WTO

A follow-up to my earlier post on election manifestos and the WTO:

The 2009 election manifesto of the BJP released yesterday includes a paragraph on international trade agreements. The message is of a tough negotiating stance that will challenge protectionism, safeguard national interest, and renegotiate past commitments if necessary. Food security, health, and interests of workers in technology-based industries are flagged as important issues. Reciprocity and market access is emphasized. All this is of course only election rhetoric, as no positions on substantive issues (except retail trade, see below) are laid out.

International Trade Agreements

The BJP shall fight against the protectionist trend which is emerging in some developed countries. We will safeguard the country’s interests in all bilateral and multilateral trade agreements by avoiding to accept any new unilateral or less than reciprocal commitments. Our Government will renegotiate all such past commitments that are inconsistent with national interests, especially to ensure food security and affordable health care. We will not hesitate to roll back any concessions and facilities not reciprocated by the counterparts. The BJP will safeguard the interests of our vast technical manpower and ensure maximum market access in future agreements depending upon the offers made by the trade partners.

The manifesto has a separate section on retail trade. No foreign investment in retail trade if the BJP comes to power in New Delhi. 

The BJP understands the critical importance of retail trade in the context of employment and services provided by them, and thus favours a dominant role for the unincorporated sector in retail trade. Towards this end, it will not allow foreign investment in the retail sector. After agriculture, the retail sector is the largest employer of nearly four crore people.

We will:

1. Adopt all necessary measures to safeguard the interests of small and tiny retail vendors.

2. Ensure availability of working capital needs for such vendors through credit at not more than four per cent interest.

3. Study the feasibility of a slab-based ‘Compound Tax’ for traders to free them from needless harassment and end corruption.

4. Set up an empowered committee to recommend welfare measures, including a pension scheme, for small traders.

Other items that are interesting from a WTO/ international trade perspective are the promises on labour:

The BJP will holistically address the long-pending issue of labour reforms, bearing in mind the long-term interests of the working class. It will do so through close consultation with representative bodies of labour and employers. We are committed to ensure the following:

1. Making secret ballot compulsory for trade union elections, by suitably amending the Industrial Disputes Act.

2. Launching a training programme for trade unions to play an effective and positive role.

3. Setting up a ‘Workers Bank’ to deal with the banking requirements of labour in the organised and unorganised sectors.

4. Ensuring adequate compensation for any labour that may be retrenched, with the first option being redeployment.

5. Setting up a National Child Labour Commission.

6. For labour in the unorganised sector, revise minimum wages; expand safety net.

And a special mention for the diamond industry that has been hit by the global economic crisis:

Hindustan Diamond Corporation will be provided full support to help the diamond industry tide over the crisis caused by the global economic slump. It will provide raw diamonds to the cutting and polishing units and bank them for future trade.

The BJP manifesto can be downloaded here.