India in the WTO

The Economic Times reports that the new Cabinet might have separate ministers for industry and trade departing from the usual practice of one ministry looking after both industry and commerce including trade. There were hints earlier about an imminent restructuring of the commerce ministry. This might be a good move, as both trade and industry are big enough responsibilities to deserve separate ministers. How will this affect the influence of industry on trade negotiations? This might also mean that Kamal Nath might not be the trade minister. Another name being mentioned is Mr. Kapil Sibal, a lawyer turned politician who was minister for science and technology in the previous cabinet. Here is the report in full:

Commerce, industry likely to part ways
26 May 2009, 0241 hrs IST, Amiti Sen, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The government is looking at splitting the commerce and industry ministry into two ministries with two full Cabinet ministers. The commerce ministry will deal primarily with all trade-related areas previously under the commerce department, and the responsibilities of the industry ministry will be much more than what was earlier held by the department of industrial policy and promotion, a government official has said.
In addition to the administration and monitoring of industrial growth and laying down of foreign direct investment guidelines, new sectors, such as heavy industry and micro, small & medium enterprises, will also come under the purview of the new industry ministry being considered.
“The government is seriously considering dividing the commerce and industry ministry into two. Names of the Cabinet ministers, who will head the two separate ministries, are likely to be announced on Tuesday,” an official, who did not wish to be named, said.
Former commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath is a likely candidate for the industry ministry, another official said on conditions of anonymity. The front-runners for the commerce ministry include Salman Khursheed and Kapil Sibal.
If Kamal Nath is not satisfied with the industry ministry, despite the added responsibilities, he could be given the human resources development ministry, the second official added.
Commerce, as an individual ministry, will continue to hold a lot of weight, as important areas, such as export-import policy, bilateral trade negotiations, the World Trade Organisation and the special economic zones (SEZs), will fall under its purview.
With senior politicians in the UPA scrambling for important portfolios, the split in the commerce and industry ministry can also be looked at as a move to accommodate more.

The Indian Express reports:

Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath and Moily are chief stars of every ministry speculator, having been assigned almost every important ministry below Raisina Hill. Kamal Nath, who was hoping to go up the Hill, is now slightly disappointed and is learnt to have held lengthy meetings with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee but came out with no firm answer. In fact, at one point, Defence Ministry mandarins had the bio-data of both A K Antony and Kamal Nath ready while the suspense was on.

Berths now being tossed around between the three are Law, Commerce, Roads, Shipping and Transport, Human Resource Development, even Environment and Forests. While Kamal Nath is said to be not so keen to return to his old beat despite the persuasion, Sibal makes no bones about the fact that he will not accept the Law portfolio.

Moily, incidentally, has no such preference but does not particularly like being in the dark. “I am more eager than you to know what is my ministry, but no phone call has come,” he said.

Last night CNN-IBN was reporting:

CP Joshi, the Rajasthan Congress President, will be the new Rural Development Minister, Kamal Nath will get Commerce and Company Affairs, Kapil Sibbal is likely to get either HRD or Commerce portfolios while Ambika Soni, the tourism minister in the previous government, could now be the new Health Minister.

We still don’t know who will be given charge of India’s commerce ministry, but this announcement can be expected by Tuesday. My sense is that Mr Kamal Nath himself is keen on continuing as Commerce minister and conclude the unfinished Doha round as well as FDI and other industrial  sector reforms.

In an interview to CNN-IBN (see the text here) Mr. Nath spoke about the prospects of the Doha round:

Rajdeep Sardesai: Between 2004-09, Kamal Nath came to be identified with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. Do you believe that with this clear mandate you will have a freer hand in the sense negotiating at the WTO you should be the commerce minister. Do you see a quick completion of the Doha round?

Kamal Nath: I think India needs to have a rule based multilateral system, we have a big stake in that. But today I think the Western countries who are bigger proponents of this are the ones getting cold feet and not India.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Yes, exactly that is why the US democratic administration seems protectionist.

Kamal Nath: That is what I am saying, they are getting cold feet not us.

On FDI:

Rajdeep Sardesai: Just before the elections, you had amended the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy through a press note. Now investments made by a company registered in India in which a foreign company has a less than 50 per cent stake will not be considered as FDI. Some believe this has allowed foreign companies to breach sectoral limits, was this the objective to open up?

Kamal Nath: When we have a global recession, we have to make India a good investment destination. I want to separate ownership and control and this seeks to do that and get more investment.

On FDI in retail:

Rajdeep Sardesai: In your first tenure, between 2004-09 there was this ghost of Left which was always haunting you. This time it doesn’t even exist, will there be FDI in the multi-sector retailing or do you believe that this might affect the kiranewalla (small grocery shop) and that might be a concern that your fellow Cabinet Ministers will against you?

Kamal Nath: It is not FDI, it is big versus small and if it is big you can have a multi-brand Indian company, you have Reliance, ITC etc.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Will you allow FDI?

Kamal Nath: No, I am not talking about retail. As long as FDI doesn’t displace existing employment it is good but talking about the retail sector it is a very grey area.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You see it as a grey area, I thought at one point of time you believed that it would help Indian agriculture.

Kamal Nath: No, we cannot generalise on retail. Retail is not cement and motor, it is technology. If we can have access to retail technology and in fact we must not be looking at man at the moment, we must be looking for the niece and the son and the daughter. And that is the key thing to look at.

On liberalisation (FDI) in education:

Rajdeep Sardesai: The Commerce Ministry had also been wanting to liberalise high education but the HRD Ministry previously under Arjun Singh was not helpful. He is no more there but the fact is that will it happen now?

Kamal Nath: I can’t say that this will happen, I can only say that we have to ensure that our youngsters have the access to the best education in India. Why are we sending thousands of youngsters abroad, why can’t they stay here and study at a fraction of the cost?

On the need for export stimulus measures:

Rajdeep Sardesai: Exports, a critical area again. The export sector has been badly hit by recession. Your (Commerce) ministry had proposed a one year exemption in the payment of the fringe tax to these export oriented companies. Will we see that?

Kamal Nath: Exemption is about competitiveness and cost. Today, if the economy is in recession we can’t plan a package for Europe or the US. We are going to ensure that all levies and taxes are refunded and are not there for export.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But the aam aadmi is the one who is being hit. Do you think the time has come for a comprehensive package for the export sector?

Kamal Nath: There is a need for a comprehensive package to refund taxes, levies on anything that is being exported. Today you go anywhere in the world and you buy something from a shop, you refund immediately. So, you must have all taxes and levies because no taxes and levies are exported.

On differences between the Commerce and the Finance ministeries (in the previous administration the Commerce and Finance ministries had differed over SEZs and over sops for exporters):

Rajdeep Sardesai: Last time there was a feeling that the Commerce Ministry and the Finance Ministry were not on the same track. Will it be different this time with Pranab Mukherjee as the Finance Minister?

Kamal Nath: Well, I think the job of the Finance Ministry is to collect the revenue and see that they do resource management so any Finance Ministry would do that. But you need to weigh it off, you may not export and you may be having an economic impact because of that.

On financial sector liberalisation:

Rajdeep Sardesai: The new Government this time is largely free of the pressures of allies and therefore you will expected to push it with reforms. Last time, every time you were asked about reform you said look my hands are tide. Your hands are no longer tide, will it be different this time?

Kamal Nath: Let’s not say that there were no reforms in the last government. There were reforms in the financial sector which we didn’t do but let us recognise this. We should remember that the reforms that were asked by those financial icons of the Western world, the ones which were wound up.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So, are you among those who think that it is good to be cautious about financial sector liberalisation?

Kamal Nath: No, it depends which reforms we are talking about. We are looking at the reforms which are India specific; we can’t be talking about reforms all over the world. Today the most important reform is the reform in the governance. Reform in our Labour Act, the labour laws must be made employment generating.

On labour law reforms:

Rajdeep Sardesai: So, you would support reforms in labour laws which allow companies to hire and fire easily?

Kamal Nath: We must recognise this that for example if a textile company wants to hire some people to complete an order in four months but they can’t take that order because he can’t hire them for four months. So at that point of time, we are losing on that amount of employment.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But will the politicians allow this kind of labour laws reform? The problem is this is where the politics seem to clash with good economics.

Kamal Nath: No, I am all for the reform in labour laws which generate employment, provide employment security. We have to have this because employment generation is our No 1 priority with the young population.

On Special Economic Zones:

Rajdeep Sardesai: But let’s look at land because there has been controversy over Kamal Nath’s policies as commerce minister when it came to the Economic Zones. You were looked at someone who was liberally granting Special Economic Zones (SEZs), some suggested that it was little more than a land scam. And now you have got Mamata Banerjee who after Nandigram and Singur is going to get tough with any attempts made to liberalise land acquisitions.

Kamal Nath: Let us not talk in the abstract. There are SEZs today on the ground, you can measure easily how much investment is coming to the nearest rupee. We can measure how much employment has been generated, how much export has happened so all that are stories of the past. There are concerns in high density states.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But after Singur and Nandigram, won’t there be pressure to sort of modify your land acquisition policies, your own minister will suggest that.

Kamal Nath: I am all for that and that is what I am suggesting that there was a Cabinet committee, there was a group of ministers selected for that. That has moved the new land acquisition rehabilitation suggestive policy and that parliament had approved that and now this Parliament will take it up.

The videos of this interview (in 5 parts) can be watched here.

With Dr. Manmohan Singh’s new cabinet due to be sworn in tomorrow, speculation is on about who will get which ministry portfolio. Readers of this blog would be interested in whether Kamal Nath will continue as Commerce minister. The Commerce minister is responsible for India’s WTO and other trade negotiations.

Until yesterday, the buzz was that Mr. Nath might be promoted to external affairs minister, leaving the commerce ministry for someone else. One name being mentioned was that of Mr. Jairam Ramesh who was the junior minister for commerce under Kamal Nath.

Todays papers however seem to indicate that Mr Nath might continue with commerce and that Mr. Ramesh might become power minister.

The Hindu reports:

The Commerce Ministry is to be restructured but could well still be headed by Kamal Nath.

This is interesting news. How will the commerce ministry get restructured?

Meanwhile the Times of India expresses the hope that freed from the demands of the left parties, the new administration might pursue a “more reasonable line” in the Doha negotiations. An extract:

With trade, India adopted the spoiler’s role at World Trade Organisation conferences, playing the victim of rapacious developed countries. The rhetoric employed was from another era, when India played a prominent role in the Group of 77, the commercial foil of the Non-aligned Movement. Without the Left calling the shots, its acolytes in the Congress-led ruling coalition will find themselves adrift. It is likely that India will pursue a more reasonable line. 

This is what Kamal Nath told the Washington Post:

“We now have the mandate for a renewed push for economic reforms,” said Kamal Nath, a senior leader of the Congress party who served as commerce minister in the previous government. “We have to open up more and take some hard steps to spur the economy because of the global recession.”

Meanwhile the Economic Times carries an article on how the Commerce ministry bureaucrats are preparing for the new minister to take charge. This is one very enthusiastic ministry. Here is the report in full:

Commerce babus just can’t wait to revive work
21 May 2009, 0236 hrs IST, Amiti Sen, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Though the last word on Kamal Nath retaining his commerce and industry portfolio is still to be heard, it seems that the bureaucracy has got down to business.
Commerce department officials are giving finishing touches to presentations on issues ranging from falling trade to the stimulus packages to the annual foreign trade policy to India’s WTO stand to free trade agreements (FTAs). The aim is to give the new minister a fair idea of the happenings in the department and the road ahead, a senior commerce ministry official said.
“All officials dealing with various issues falling under the purview of the commerce department had been asked to bring out capsules on what has been happening in various sectors and what remains to be done. The work is almost finished,” the official who did not want to be named said.
With exports falling for seven straight months and the situation not expected to improve till September, some quick decisions are called for by the new government.
“The situation is grave. We have ensured that the new minister will be updated on the global economic situation and the effect on domestic business without any loss of time, this will also enable the new minister to come up with an effective foreign trade policy,” the official added.
Issues like extension of the interest rate subvention or discount given to exporters from select labour-intensive sectors beyond September 30 and continuation of the higher reimbursements given to exporters under the DEPB (import duty reimbursement) scheme beyond June 30 need to be decided. The government also needs to take a call on whether more sectors and countries need to be covered under the focus-product and focus-market schemes, where cash incentives are given to exporters.
On the overseas front, there are two bilateral agreements that are waiting to be signed. Signing of the FTA with ten-member ASEAN, which had been pushed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is long overdue. The FTA with South Korea too needs to be signed without delay.
Special economic zones (SEZs) is another area that needs immediate attention. With the slowdown hitting SEZ investments, investors who have asked for more time to execute projects need to be dealt with sympathetically. There is also a need to settle issues such as giving infrastructure status to the zones.

Here is an interesting SSRN paper on the issue of the status of WTO law within the Indian legal system.

Chowdhury, Nupur,The (Absence of) Direct Effect of WTO Law – Current Developments within the Indian Legal System(May 20, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1136585

Abstract:
This chapter gives an overview of the status of international law under the Indian Constitution and its implications for the status of the WTO Agreement and the covered agreements within the Indian legal system. The Indian legal system is dualistic and international legal instruments ratified by the country become part of the national system only when it is transposed into national law. However such a strict interpretation has often been circumvented by the Courts in favor of a direct applicability of international law on the basis of the principle of consistent interpretation as provided for in the Constitution. In that sense it is interesting to note that notwithstanding the dualistic nature of the legal system, the Courts have applied the consistent interpretation, supremacy and the (in)direct effect principles in a varied number of cases to strengthen the conformity of national law with international law. In that sense, the relationship between these principles is dynamic and can be temporally located within the different trends of judicial activism in the Indian courts. Amongst the WTO agreement it is the TRIPS agreement that has been at the center of most legal disputes. Given the considerable economic interests of the Indian biotechnology sector (drugs and pharmaceuticals) and therefore the high stakes, in concomitance with the considerable textual ambiguity, which the TRIPS amendment has created, this is not surprising. It also underlines the currency of such a debate on the application of the principle of direct effect in the present context of the Indian legal system.

See:

Gupta, Surupa. "Developing Country Interests and Coalitions-Building at WTO Negotiations: Some Lessons from India’s Experience" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mar 19, 2004 Online <.PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p73469_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite recurrent last minute defections, developing countries such as India continue to rely on forming coalitions with other like-minded countries during multilateral trade negotiations. This paper seeks to explain why they do so and to assess the extent to which such a strategy brings benefits by looking at India’s experiences during 1995-2001. It argues that in India’s case coalition formation should be seen within the context of India’s search for a new strategy for multilateral trade negotiation after the conclusion of the Uruguay Round. The impetus for the new strategy came from the perceived “selling-out” of India’s interests during the Uruguay Round. That experience also generated a negative perception in India about the World Trade Organization, a perception that was further strengthened as its agenda was sought to be expanded by the United States and the European Union beginning in 1995-96. The attempt at enlarging the agenda also strained the meager negotiating resources that India had at the time. On each of the new issues that were proposed, India’s position was farthest from that of the US and the EU. It was obvious that India would have to work hard to protect its interests and in the absence of adequate resources of its own, working in coalitions turned out to be an obvious choice. The strategy has allowed India to have a much larger voice in these negotiations than what we would expect looking at its global trade share. In the area of furthering Indian interests, the success of the strategy has been more modest. .

Friesen, Kenneth. "Understanding Globalization in India: A Flattened or a Layered World?" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180435_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Understanding the nature of globalization in India is more than just understanding an
economic definition of poverty – it includes an understanding of the culture and history of
India and ways in which globalization means adding layers of complexity within India, not
simply replacing one India (traditional) with another (modern). This paper situates the
economic liberalization policies of the Indian government from the early 1990s to the
present in the context of the larger globalization debate. The paper then puts the context
around which the economic reforms were taken within India’s recent development history.
After understanding this greater context the paper reviews several recent studies that have
examined whether the economic growth in India has come at the expense of growing
inequality.

Gupta, Surupa. "Protecting the half-billion: Domestic and international determinants of India’s agricultural trade policy at the WTO negotiations" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA, Mar 22, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p99692_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although economists have argued that India has a comparative advantage in several farm products, India’s position in the WTO negotiations in agriculture has been primarily defensive. This paper explains India’s defensive posture by tracing it to a new consultative mechanism for decision-making on WTO issues that explicitly recognizes the role of the agriculture ministry in agenda-setting. India’s definition of its core interests and its ability to maintain its defensive position have also been shaped by the multilateral trade regime itself and by the changing coalitions within it.

Sinha, Aseema. "Global Linkages and Domestic Politics: Trade Reform and Institution Building in India in Comparative Perspective" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA, Mar 22, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p99690_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines how the World Trade Organization (WTO) affects institutional development and policy responses in India. India is a country traditionally resistant to external pressures but in which participation in an international organization stimulated a transformation in trade policy processes and procedures, unleashed a new bureaucratic politics, institutional innovation, and activation of policy-expert linkages. I argue that we go beyond zero-sum assumptions in understanding the relationship between globalization and national state institutions. Key rules of international organizations increase transaction and sovereignty costs for states, which may catalyze new domestic capacities and create the impetus for new governance mechanisms. I demonstrate this argument with an analysis of India’s engagement with the WTO and with illustrative evidence of China, Brazil, Japan, and United States’s interaction with the WTO. The evidence is drawn from 18 month fieldwork in India, Washington DC, and Geneva, a newspaper database, and reliance on 100 interviews. [149 words]

Gupta, Surupa. "Tying Hands and Cutting Slack: Comparing India?s Negotiating Positions in Agriculture and Services using the Two-Level Game Framework" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180085_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How states behave in the context of a negotiation can best be understood within a domestic-international framework such as two-level game which focuses on international and domestic-level inputs simultaneously and attempts to understand the strategic interaction between them. However, the literature on two-level games, with some exceptions, focuses primarily on bilateral negotiations between developed states. Studying developing country responses in the context of multilateral negotiations requires us to both modify certain assumptions and question some of the conclusions. The existing literature looks at cases where the negotiations are initiated by the executives of states engaged in the negotiations and thus assumes that at least at the agenda-setting phase, the executive has substantial autonomy. This paper, which compares the processes through which India?s negotiating agenda on agriculture and services were arrived at, focuses on negotiations, which were not initiated by the Indian executive but were mandated by the WTO. The very fact that the executive is responding to an international regime stirs up domestic political actors, including but not restricted to specific interest groups whose interests may be affected. India?s negotiating agenda in the two sectors were thus shaped simultaneously by international political and economic factors as well as domestic politics within India. Contrary to the literature?s finding that the executives prefer not to tie their hands, the Indian government made an explicit attempt to involve relevant stakeholders. The paper analyzes how such domestic-international interactions and the executive?s attempt at involving stakeholders have shaped India?s negotiating response and in process, suggests modifications in the two-level game framework.

Campos, Taiane. "Joining the Domestic and the International: Brazil and India in the Building Process of G-20" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p253569_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors that determined the position of Brazil and India in the G-20 formation. In order to do so, it will be analyzed a set of factors that determined the size of the win set of both countries. The focus lays on domestic political institutions as well as on the negotiation strategies of both countries in G-20. To be able to understand the G-20, we have to consider the diversity of the economic, social and political conditions that characterizes its members and, consequently, their interests. The Brazilian and Indian positions deserve special attention either because of their political performance as interlocutors of the group or because of their difference of interests in agricultural agenda in WTO.The initial supposition is that these two countries have divergent interests on the negotiation process of agricultural trade. It would be reasonable to think that India would automatically align with USA and EU in defending mechanisms to protect this sector, which would place India in an opposite side from Brazil. However, what we see is an alignment between them and the formation of a coalition against those other proposals. The question which guides this research concerns the factors that made possible the formation and maintenance of G-20 despite the apparent conflict of interest between Brazil and India. This research is structured within an analytical framework that seeks to combine the domestic and international factors in the understanding process of formal and informal international agreements structuring.

Mukherji, Rahul. "The Politics of the Shift to Foreign Investment Friendly Regulation: The Case of Indian Telecommunications" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251887_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores the political economy of three significant policy decisions taken by the Congress – United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between November 2005 and February 2006, which have improved the incentives for foreign investment in India’s telecommunications sector. This was a notable departure from the past when policies had clearly favoured domestic investment over foreign investment. The paper argues that these decisions occurred due to the increasing sensitivity of the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) to the needs of the relatively smaller Indian service providers, who were dependent on foreign capital. They were not driven by a crisis of investment or foreign pressure to change policies in India’s telecommunications sector. The paper challenges explanations for embracing globalization such as those based on economic crisis or those based on a clear technocratic consensus. The political economy of this shift to foreign investment friendly regulations in the telecommunications sector suggests that economic reforms in India can occur in normal times. They depended to a large extent on the nature of the political economy that the ruling party was willing to support.

Moore, Candice. "Multilateralism and Trilateralism in the IBSA Partnership: Tensions and Congruities" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251820_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper seeks to examine the tensions between trilateralism and multilateralism in the IBSA partnership. While one of the stated goals of the partnership is multilateralism and the reform of the United Nations (IBSA Communique, 2005), the trilateral partnership that IBSA embodies appears antithetical to the representation of broader interests in each member’s region. This issue came to a head in the months preceding the debates on UN reform in September 2005, when India, Brazil and South Africa each voiced their interest in permanent representation on the UN Security Council, but failed to win the support of their regional neighbours. More recently, it is evident in the prominence of India and Brazil in exclusive trade talks with the EU and US to save the Doha Development Round. The paper draws on the middle power literature, which sees middle powers as committed to multilateralism, but problematises this commitment by considering the growing economic and strategic significance of these states. Trilateralism is not pursued to the exclusion of North-South links, as evidenced in Brazil’s and India’s increasing closeness to the US. It is thus not an alternative to robust North-South relations, as older forms of South-South solidarity (NAM and G-77) were portrayed. The paper concludes thus that the IBSA partnership is not a successor of older forms of South-South solidarity premised on multilateralism, but rather a vehicle for the development and increased levels of participation in international affairs of its three members.

Sinha, Aseema. "Change from Inside-Out or Outside-In? Trade Reform in India’s Closed Economy" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p253177_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: What makes trade reform possible in a traditionally closed economy? Economic reform and structural adjustment have been global movements for more than a decade by now, yet trade reform remains one of the most difficult arenas of policy change in many developing countries. The distributional politics of trade, and the rise of protectionist pressures in the advanced countries of the world, have contributed to a backlash against serious trade reform in many countries. Despite countervailing pressures in favor of rising protectionism, India’s trade regime has undergone serious reform in the last decade, encompassing policy changes, outcomes, and institutional changes. During these years a party espousing economic nationalism and fear of the open economy has ruled the country. This empirical puzzle forms the starting point of this paper. I ask: how has trade reform been consolidated in a traditionally closed economy like India? I argue that crucial domestic societal changes are a necessary precondition for changes in state’s attitudes; yet, external forces may change the preferences of domestic forces, as well as change the balance of power among interest groups. These, new coalitions in favor of greater global integration, come into contact with a activated state; these intra-group/intra-class factors combine with state-class transformations to effect change in trade orientation and reform turning toward a global openness. This paper, thus, highlights important mechanisms through which global trade integration and institutions shaped the domestic politics of trade. The international trade institutions not only constrain behavior of domestic actors, but also constitute interests and identities of key domestic actors. Moreover, participation in global trade negotiations changes the preferences of some producers, and strengthens the hands of recently created, externally oriented, domestic producers by bringing them closer to the national-state actors and by encouraging collaborative strategies between business and state actors.

Alden, Christopher. and Vieira, Marco. "The New Diplomacy of the South: Brazil, South Africa, India and Trilateralism" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, Mar 05, 2005 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p69301_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The failure of the negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial in Cancun in September 2003 could well have marked a turning point in the emergence of a new post-Cold War paradigm. Indeed, while much has been made of the realist ‘world restored’ (or its converse) in the aftermath of 9/11, surely of greater significance is the reassertion of the South-North divide as a defining axis of the international system. In this context, the emergence of coterie of South countries actively challenging the position and assumptions of the leading states of the North is an especially significant event. What has been missing from most of the international accounts of the Cancun meeting and its repercussions is a recognition that the positions adopted there were part of a broader strategy formulated and implemented by key states within the South. This activism on the part of three middle income developing countries in particular – Brazil, South Africa and India – has resulted in the creation of a ‘trilateralist’ diplomatic partnership, itself a reflection of broader transformations across the developing world in the wake of globalisation. The establishment of this new diplomatic partnership of the South begs a number of questions about the states involved, the nature of their co-operation and its relationship to international system as a whole. Specifically: What are the motivations and dynamics of ‘trilateralist’ co-operation amongst these middle income developing states? What role does ideology play in this process? Given the uneven record of co-operation across the South and the growing economic diversity between developing countries, how sustainable is the ‘trilateralism’ initiative? This paper will examine the rise and promulgation of the co-operative strategy known as ‘trilateralism’ by regional leaders within the South. Specifically, it will first provide an overview of the theoretical approaches to the new regionalism and the South; secondly, it will review the domestic, regional, and international factors which have traditionally conditioned the foreign policies of Brazil, South Africa and India; thirdly it will investigate the formulation and implementation of ‘trilateralism’ as a initiative framed within the context of the new regionalism; and, finally, it will conclude with an analysis of the initiative’s prospects for success in the contemporary environment.

Kastner, Scott. "The Domestic Politics of Trade with Adversaries" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA’s 49th ANNUAL CONVENTION, BRIDGING MULTIPLE DIVIDES, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251262_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many recent studies find that international political conflict—operationalized in a variety of ways—harms trade. Well-known cases help to underscore these general findings. For example, Cold War tensions helped to undermine East-West trade, and trade between India and Pakistan slowed sharply in the years after partition. On the other hand, however, trade between adversaries also appears to vary substantially across cases. Indeed, trade can sometimes flourish despite intense political rivalry. In the current relationship between mainland China and Taiwan, for example, China has become Taiwan’s largest trading partner despite persistent political tension across the Taiwan Strait.How can we explain variation in the extent to which states trade with their adversaries? Building on existing literature, I develop a framework through which to understand how domestic coalitions concerning trade with an adversary are likely to form. While some actors are likely to favor or oppose trade for purely economic reasons, those without a direct economic stake in the relationship are likely to focus more on the political and security consequences of trade with the adversary. In this framework, two variables emerge as central in determining a country’s trade policy with an adversary: the relative political strength of internationalist versus protectionist economic interests, and whether those concerned primarily with politics believe trade will have positive or negative political and security externalities. I use the framework to develop several testable hypotheses, and evaluate them via short case studies of three contemporary rivalries: China/Taiwan; India/Pakistan; and North Korea/South Korea

Campos, Taiane. and Las Casas, Luciana. "Similar roles, different strategies: Brazil, India and South Africa trade policies" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA’s 50th ANNUAL CONVENTION "EXPLORING THE PAST, ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE", New York Marriott Marquis, NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA, Feb 15, 2009 Online <PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p313872_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The trade policies of Brazil, India and South Africa have significant historical similarities: these countries are original WTO members; they adopted import-substitution industrialization; promoted neoliberal reforms; have been playing important roles in their regional contexts; and, more recently, they have also formed alliances and coalitions (IBSA, G20) in order to increase their capacity to influence the trade regime. At the same time, they are intensifying bilateral and regional ties which are different in scope and degrees of institutionalization. The result is that, despite of having similar roles which are derived from their status as middle powers, these three countries have developed different strategies concerning their trade policy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze comparatively the trade policies of Brazil, India and South Africa in the multilateral and regional environments. Our contention is that there are significant differences in their conduct on those two levels, in such a way that it is not possible to establish a fixed pattern of trade policy amongst middle powers, at least not amongst these three.

Sondhi, Sunil. "India’s big leap forward: Capacity and Preference" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, Mar 05, 2005 Online <.PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p70644_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: India has changed dramatically in recent years. This paper examines India’s winning strategies-liberalization, a focus on high technology, and its resolve to become a regional leader- as well as its challenges- the wide gap between its urban and rural populations, growing unemploymeny, and the challenge posed by extremist ideologies and organisations. It also considers the effects that India’s success has had both at home and abroad. India’s progress has unnerved some of its neighbours and trading partners. South Asian countries worry about India’s economic dominance, in the US concern has been mounting over loss of jobs in the service sector. India has tried to soften its neighbours concerns by spearheading regional free trade zone. It continues to signal its desire to integrate into the world economy by pursuing liberalization and encouraging trade. It is argued in this paper that an economically strengthened India will increasingly regard itself as a great ppower and expect more deference from other countries. There is little doubt that India’s emergence as an economic power will rank as one of the principal issues confronting world leaders in next few decades and that its role demands careful analysis.

Pigman, Geoffrey. "Economic and Security Convergence: Governments and Firms in U.S.-India Diplomacy from Super 301 to the 2002 Kashmir Crisis" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mar 17, 2004 Online <.PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p72364_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: U.S.-India economic relations evolved substantially between the 1989 Super 301 trade dispute and the 2002 India-Pakistan crisis over Kashmir. Traditional models of economic diplomacy focusing on the leading role of governments and their relevant ministries, in which business had a subordinate lobbying role in the decisionmaking process, could be used to describe the low-level U.S.-India economic and security relationship that prevailed in the 1980s. However, the conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round, the technology boom of the 1990s and other structural factors have intensified the economic relationship between the two countries significantly. The attacks on New York, Washington and New Delhi in 2001 culminated a process of convergence of the two countries’ security interests. A complex network of diplomatic interactions between governments, U.S. and Indian global firms, and the U.S.-Indian business and cultural diaspora contributed to convincing the Indian Government to defuse tension with Pakistan in summer 2002. Understanding this process requires an updated model of economic diplomacy that incorporates the role of non-state actors, multiple channels of communication and integration of domestic and international politics. Neo-Gramscian notions of hegemonic power structures integrating political leadership, transnational capital and civil society contribute to explaining the exercise of power in these newer, complex business-government diplomatic networks

Brookes, Marissa. "Toward Transnationalism: Comparative Insights on Organized Labor’s Strategic Responses to Offshore Outsourcing in the Telecommunications Industry" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association 67th Annual National Conference, The Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p362173_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Why do some unions confront global capital through transnational action, while others act only nationally? I address this question through the lens of union responses to offshoring in the telecommunications industry in Australia, the US, and the UK. Union strategies vary both across and within these countries, despite their institutional similarities as liberal market economies. While some unions pursue solidaristic partnerships with their labor counterparts abroad, others restrict action to pressuring governments and mobilizing domestic coalitions. The joint project of the Communications Workers of America (U.S.) and the New Trade Union Initiative (India) contrasts sharply with the Communication Workers Union’s (UK) nationalist anti-offshoring campaign. Most other cases fall in between. For example, the Australian Services Union focuses on government action and consumer mobilization yet is actively involved in several Global Union Federations and international campaigns. I argue that this variation is due to three factors: the union’s ability to adjust to historical changes in the telecom industry; employers’ actions affecting unions’ mobilization of domestic coalitions; and the viability of potential labor partners abroad.

Mishra, Pramod. "China-India Bonhomie: A Harbinger of Multilateralism" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, Mar 05, 2005 Online <.PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p69909_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: CHINA-INDIA BONHOMIE: AN HARBINGER OF MULTILATERALISM By Dr Pramod Mishra Associate Professor in Politics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India China and India have emerged as important global players at the dawn of the twentieth century. The former by discarding its isolationism and closed-door policy in the early 1980s took a number of corrective measures under Deng Xiaping’s stewardship and integrated its economy to the developed western world. As a result of that by the mid-1990s, China achieved a high growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent per annum. Its political process has not been an obstacle to the expansion of its diplomatic and commercial links with the rest of the world. In fact, its civil service has been surprisingly very resilient. India on the other hand has been a late starter to globalization and the restructuring of its hitherto mixed economy. Although the background to India’s modernization was provided by the Raja Gandhi government (1985-89), it was left to the Narasimha Rao government to integrate India to the global economy. The bold initiative taken by the-then Finance Minister Man Mohan Singh brought healthy dividends and India’s rate of growth remained steady at 7 to 8 per cent per annum during the 1990s. The NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee has continued that initiative and as a result of that India at present maintains one of the highest growth rates in the world. The proposed paper will closely examine the nuances of mutual economic and political interactions between China and India. Although their present trade turnover is place at $5 billion only it has a potentiality to triple by the end of 2010. The leadership in both the countries have ignored the past decades of mistrust after a limited border war in 1962.It is quite possible that the two nations may amicably sort put their border demarcation problem and go ahead to make a concerted effort to establish a more democratic and humane world order. They can also systematically neutralize the unhealthy unilateralism which has heightened the global insecurity in various regions leading to immense sufferings to large part of humanity.

Moore, Candice. "Multilateralism and Trilateralism in the IBSA Partnership: Tensions and Congruities" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA’s 49th ANNUAL CONVENTION, BRIDGING MULTIPLE DIVIDES, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251820_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper seeks to examine the tensions between trilateralism and multilateralism in the IBSA partnership. While one of the stated goals of the partnership is multilateralism and the reform of the United Nations (IBSA Communique, 2005), the trilateral partnership that IBSA embodies appears antithetical to the representation of broader interests in each member’s region. This issue came to a head in the months preceding the debates on UN reform in September 2005, when India, Brazil and South Africa each voiced their interest in permanent representation on the UN Security Council, but failed to win the support of their regional neighbours. More recently, it is evident in the prominence of India and Brazil in exclusive trade talks with the EU and US to save the Doha Development Round. The paper draws on the middle power literature, which sees middle powers as committed to multilateralism, but problematises this commitment by considering the growing economic and strategic significance of these states. Trilateralism is not pursued to the exclusion of North-South links, as evidenced in Brazil’s and India’s increasing closeness to the US. It is thus not an alternative to robust North-South relations, as older forms of South-South solidarity (NAM and G-77) were portrayed. The paper concludes thus that the IBSA partnership is not a successor of older forms of South-South solidarity premised on multilateralism, but rather a vehicle for the development and increased levels of participation in international affairs of its three members.

Turner, Robin. "Liberalization and Domestic Politics: The Case of Livestock Policy Reform in India" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, Sep 02, 2004 Online <.PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p59903_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper explores the dynamics of livestock policy reforms in two Indian states, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Livestock policy reforms have been shaped by the intersection of domestic politics and power relations, international actors—especially foreign governments and development organizations, and international trade regimes. The international policy environment and global trade regime has set the context for India’s market-oriented reforms, but it is largely domestic political leaders, institutions, bureaucratic structures, and organized interests that have shaped the form and extent of reform in this sector. Marked differences in the reform trajectory of different livestock sectors in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa show how domestic politics can shape the implementation of global reforms. This paper focuses on the politics of reform in the large ruminant (cattle, buffalo) and animal health and breeding subsectors.

Singh, J.P.. "Culture or Commerce? A Comparative Assessment of International Negotiations and Developing Countries at UNESCO and WTO" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p178918_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The proposed paper will depart from ominous warnings regarding globalization in arguing that international trade and cultural diversity can co-exist. The study will show that while negotiating trade issues, increasing international and domestic coalition building in cultural issues leads to preservation of policy autonomy for addressing cultural identity and diversity concerns. Two important international negotiations on cultural issues ? one at the World Trade Organization and the other in UNESCO — will be examined for empirical substantiation. A comparative assessment of the way these negotiations balanced culture and trade issues will be undertaken for a set of developed countries (particularly US and EU) followed by a set of developing countries representing those remaining fearful or confident of the impact of international trade on cultural diversity. Developing countries analyzed will be India, China, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Senegal, and South Africa. We would expect developed countries most likely to preserve cultural policy autonomy and the developing countries least likely to do so. The empirical evidence collected so far seems to show that depending on their coalition-building efforts, both sets of countries can preserve cultural policy autonomy.

Arnold, Caroline. "Late Industrialization in International Perspective: Historical Reflections on Turkish and Indian Industrialization" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association 67th Annual National Conference, The Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p363074_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This claim is surprising given that India and Turkey are portrayed in both robust area studies and the wider development literatures as the prototypes of state-led industrialization. I argue that links between local industries and international markets have diverged to create three phases of industrialization in India and Turkey as technologies and the character of international trade and production have shifted. They have done so in ways that influenced the very patterns of capital accumulation and technological acquisition that are central to traditional accounts of late industrialization. Contra the entire lineage of development theorizing, from Gerschenkron to the developmental statists, that views the state as the defining factor in the character of national industrialization patterns, Turkish and Indian cities that industrialized in the same international and historical context exhibit greater similarities with each other than they do with other Turkish or Indian cases that industrialized at other times. This paper demonstrates that international factors, rather than the role of the national state, determined the sources of capital, role of technology, and the role of labor in Turkish and Indian industrialization.

Guisinger, Alexandra. "Who Liberalizes? Explaining Cross-Country Variations in Trade Protection Though International Networks" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, Mar 05, 2005 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p71395_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite the theoretical benefits of zero-tariff trade and a recent trend towards trade protection liberalization, large cross-national variations in trade policy endure. What determines countries’ trade policy choices? Traditional comparative politics explanations have focused primarily on domestic determinants: the economic constraints faced by leaders as determined both by domestic resource endowments and previous policy choices and/or the effects of domestic political institutions (for example: Magee et al, 1989; Mansfield and Busch, 1993; Nielson, 2003). However, while support for such arguments is evident in studies of OECD behavior, they lack explanatory power for a broader class of countries (Guisinger, m.s. 2003). More recently, alternative explanations based on membership in the GATT/WTO have received at best inconclusive support (for example: Rose, forthcoming). Breaking from the traditional comparative research agenda on trade and its focus on decision-theoretic models, I posit a set of diffusion hypotheses in which a country’s decision to liberalize is conditioned on its network of trading partners and peers. Levels of protection at the country-wide level converge upon those of trading partners and of peers. Not only do these networks permit the identification of likely liberalizers and non-liberalizers, but also they allow more precise determination within these groups as to the source of a country’s behavior. Expanding upon previous quantitative analysis of the trade tariffs of 60 developing countries from 1988 to 1998 (Guisinger, m.s. 2003), four qualitative case studies drawn from this analysis are presented: Brazil, Argentina, India, and Nepal.

Herring, Ronald. "Politics of Transgenic Property in India: Biopiracy, Monopoly Power or Cottage Industry?" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 Online <PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180347_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The genomics revolution in biology has spawned a new politics, with strikingly similar themes from California to Gujarat. The spread of biotechnology internationally continues on an accelerating curve upwards. Developmental states in China, India and Brazil promote the technology to make their agriculture competitive with that of richer nations. Equally, resistance in an international civil society escalates with the increasing number of crops, acres and farmers involved with genetically engineered organisms. Property is one strand of this contentious politics. Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) have become a flash point of mobilization of civil society against corporate globalization. Concentration of property rights in powerful multinational firms with no incentive to find solutions to problems of poor farmers in poor countries and potential for monopoly profits at the expense of poor farmers both figure prominently in the critique of genetic engineering in developmental terms. Worse, appropriation of intellectual property in biota of the global South is held to threaten poor societies for the profit of firms in the global North. This paper explores the ground realities related to these political claims. It argues that the oppositional critique reifies intellectual property ? in the form of ?patents? ? in a way that has proved inconsistent with behavior of actors on the ground in India and other countries. Property is here conceptualized as a relationship between actors; the outcome cannot be derived logically but must be investigated empirically. In the absence of the much critiqued ?terminator technology,? reverse ?biopiracy? seems not only fairly easy to accomplish, but popular in farming communities. This move by farmers puts them in conflict, objectively, with some, but not all, NGOs that claim to represent their interests. The paper will discuss outcomes from a national case study in terms of differentiations of property that make sense theoretically, from hard to soft and from common to private. It will conclude with suggestions about what the divergence of interests between farmers and NGOs means for representation and political power in rural areas.

Sequeira, Vikrum. "IBSA, International Relations Theories, and Changes in the Global Architecture" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Palmer House Hotel, Hilton, Chicago, IL, Apr 03, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p267593_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In June 2003, India, Brazil, and South Africa inaugurated the IBSA Alliance, which aimed to become what South African President Thabo Mbeki hailed as a "G-8 of the South." The three nations would try to expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, modify the TRIPS laws, and impel the US and EU to eliminate agricultural subsidies. The countries also agreed to cooperate in agricultural research, IT, trade, and defense (among other issues). This paper asks four broad questions: 1. Can the paradigms of international relations (e.g., realism, pluralism, Marxism, etc.) explain the IBSA alliance? 2. Will IBSA be able to accomplish its stated goals? 3. Has the IBSA alliance modified the foreign policies of the participant states? 4. Is the creation of IBSA emblematic of a new global architecture? I argue that none of the IR paradigms alone can explain IBSA; IBSA may achieve success in its clearly stated goals but will be unsuccessful in its other goals; the alliance has slightly modified the countries’ foreign policies; the creation of IBSA does indeed represent a change in the world political-economic system.

Oliveira, Amancio. and Onuki, Janina. "South-South Cooperation: Coalitions and Multilateral Negotiations. The Case of IBSA (Brazil, India and South Africa)" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA, Mar 22, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p99910_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The international coalition formation process has played a central role in the dynamics of multilateral and regional trade negotiations, particularly as concerns the outlook for the re-balance of central-peripheral forces of the international system. The reopening of a new round of multilateral negotiations, focusing precisely on new thematic challenges regarding international trade and routes to development, reintroduces the centrality of the role of South-South alliances.In practice, cooperative efforts of this nature are already making themselves felt with the formation of a series of coalitions, whereas emphasis must be placed on G-20 and G-3 (IBSA). The essential aspect to be retained is that, taking into consideration the dimension of the convergence of international business interests strictly speaking, the partnership between India and Brazil, at the starting point of efforts to build international coalitions, is clearly counterintuitive.With a basis on the Compared Foreign Policy Analysis, the objective of this paper is to contribute towards a more comprehensive understanding of the bases (domestic and international) of the formation of international coalitions, of the South-South type in the new context of the multilateral agenda. A comparative matrix will be built as an analytical instrument. Based on databased with variables, the compared analysis of these variables will permit the itemization of vectors of convergence and divergence among the countries capable of indicating the stability and effectiveness of the coalition.

de Mello Souza, André. "Global Governance, Developing Countries and Advocacy Networks: The Struggle over Pharmaceutical Patent Rights" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251818_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has challenged developing countries in issue-areas as diverse and important as public health and agriculture. Most notably, these countries have often contended that patents block access to essential medicines, and opposed strict rules of patentability for genetic resources which encourage biopiracy and fail to protect traditional knowledge. Whereas developing countries have become increasingly assertive in multilateral forums, their capacity to successfully negotiate with the countries that champion intellectual property protection and especially the US has varied considerably across issue-areas. Developing countries have succeeded in amending TRIPS to allow greater international trade of patented medicines, but have failed to resist the patenting of genetic resources and to create effective rules for benefit sharing. The paper argues that the negotiating capacity of developing countries with regard to pharmaceutical patent rights has been largely determined by the strength of their alliances with transnational advocacy networks, as well as by these networks’ strategic use of science and human rights discourse. Field work has been conducted in South Africa, Brazil and India as well as in Geneva, consisting mostly of interviews with government officials, company executives and representatives of the non-governmental sector, as well as analysis of policy documents.

Kastner, Scott. "How International Conflict Affects Commerce: Domestic Interests and Institutions as Intervening Variables" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, Sep 02, 2004 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p61628_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Limited commercial integration between India and Pakistan, or within much of the Middle East, suggests that conflicting political interests between countries can have a detrimental effect on their economic relations. Indeed, a number of empirical studies have shown that tension or conflict between countries tends to be associated with lower levels of commerce. Yet rapidly growing economic ties between Mainland China and Taiwan shows that commerce can also flourish even in the presence of severe political tension and a potential for military conflict. In this paper, I develop an argument that accounts for variation in the relationship between conflict and commerce. Defining conflict as the level of underlying preference dissimilarity between countries, I argue that conflict’s effects on trade are contingent on the types of governing coalitions and political institutions within the states enmeshed in a conflictual relationship. Specifically, if free-trade interests are relatively strong politically, the independent effects of conflict on trade are less severe; conflict’s effects on trade are also less severe when conflict involves at least one democracy. I test my argument quantitatively on a large sample over the years 1960-1992, and find robust support for my hypotheses.

Biermann, Frank. and Sohn, Hans-Dieter. "Multipolar Global Governance: India and East Asia as New Partners for Europe" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mar 17, 2004 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p74421_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Whereas European foreign policy used to be defined through the alliance with the United States, it is now clear that this one-sided orientation is no longer sufficient. This is especially the case for global environmental governance, where Europe stands in most negotiations, almost by default, against the United States. The core examples are the almost universally recognised biodiversity convention of 1992, its Cartagena protocol on safety in the trade of genetically modified organisms, the Basel agreement on the transboundary shipment of hazardous waste and their disposal, and, most crucially, the Kyoto protocol to the UN framework convention on climate change. All these agreements have been rejected by the United States of America. In this situation, we argue that if Europe wants to make progress in environmental and other issue areas, it needs new and stable alliances, in addition to the old transatlantic linkage. We will direct attention towards possible partners in Asia and primarily address the great powers of Asia: Japan, China and, in particular, the world’s largest democracy, India. We argue for a twofold strategy. Internally, Europe must unite more strongly. The old Kissinger question still has to be answered: which phone number does the US president—or the prime minister of India—have to call if he or she wants to get Europe’s opinion? The European Union must improve the coherence of its foreign policy, primarily through becoming further communitised. The office of a EU president could take joint responsibility for foreign and security policy in the medium term. Externally, Europe needs to reform its foreign policy and rethink well-trodden paths. This applies in particular to redefining the traditional North-South antagonism in international negotiations, which hardly corresponds any longer to the reality of the international system in many policy areas. New international partnerships between the European Union and the large Southern democracies could redress the traditional confrontation between the group of Western industrialised countries and the ‘Group of 77′, possibly pointing out solutions if global governance projects should threaten to fail because of unilateral rejection by the USA. The political drifting apart of the ‘First World’, the dissolution of the ‘Second World’ and the political, economic and social differentiation of the ‘Third World’ thus offer scope for the recharting of world politics. The development of a multilateral global governance structure requires a strong global alliance of democratic players: many recent environmental treaties—but also the international criminal court, the anti-landmine treaty and other examples—show that Europe and the Bush administration often no longer act together but rather against each other. The European Union must therefore look for other partners—to complement rather than replace the United States of America. We argue that increased dialogue and more intensive political co-operation on the part of Europe with the world’s biggest democracy, India, could be one element of such a reorientation.

Wolfe, Robert. "Power and Institutional Structure in Global Governance: The Changing Dynamics of Agricultural Trade Negotiations" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Political Research Online, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA, Mar 22, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p98022_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will present work from a larger project on institutional dynamics and power in the WTO based on an analysis of the evolution of the negotiating process on agriculture since the Tokyo Round. I am selecting for variation on aspects of process, expecting to see variation in outcome. When we are interested in processes more than structures, qualitative case studies can be more useful than large n statistical studies. I propose to use the ?method of difference? to examine a set of apparently similar cases in which key aspects of the process differ to see if the outcomes differ. The outcome variable will assessments in the press, the academic and policy literature, and participant interviews, of the success or failure of the agriculture component of successive GATT and WTO ministerial meetings. The explanatory variables are A) institutional structure (nature of the committee structure, repertoire of formal and informal techniques used by the chair to build consensus) and B) the nature and role of negotiating coalitions that reflect different constellations of material interests and diplomatic skill. The role of coalitions in the trading system appears to be changing with the emergence of the G-20 group of leading developing countries interested in agriculture. Regional groups of developing countries, and the LDC group, now coordinate among Geneva ambassadors, they have ministerial meetings, and since Cancun they are working together at ministerial level as the G-90 grouping of the African, ACP, and Least-developed countries. And there are separate groups for agriculture including the Cairns Group (exporters), and the G-10 and the G-33 of developed and developing importers. At the heart of the negotiations on agriculture is a ?non-group? (because not like-minded) of ?Five Interested Parties?, EU, USA, Brazil, India and Australia. Can we explain outcomes on the basis of process or the power of the leading participants?

Saksena, Jyotika. "International Organizations and Erosion of State Sovereignty" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA’s 49th ANNUAL CONVENTION, BRIDGING MULTIPLE DIVIDES, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p251222_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since the end of the Second World War, the international system has seen the multiplication of international organizations that have made inter-state cooperation a sustainable reality. In doing so states have agreed to give up part of their decision-making authority to international organizations leading to a growing concern that in the process states are losing their sovereignty, namely their right to make decisions on behalf of their people. This paper uses John Ruggie’s definition of sovereignty, defined as “the institutionalization of public authority within mutually exclusive jurisdictional domains”. This study will attempt an examination of the impact of international organizations in eroding state sovereignty. After an initial discussion of what constitutes a loss of sovereignty, the study will focus on the impact of a specific international organization – the WTO – in eroding state sovereignty. Finally, in order to achieve a comparative dimension, the study will investigate the impact on the state at two levels – great/super power level and middle power level by examining the response of the United States and India to the dictates of the WTO.

Sinha, Aseema. "Global Trade Rules and India: Modifying Putnam?s Two-Level Framework" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 <Not Available>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180081_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Putnam outlined a powerful metaphor for understanding domestic-international interactions in his two-level framework. In his analysis domestic politics drives international negotiations. Negotiators must make their international actions consistent with domestic support and policy: leaders respond to international obligation to the extent that these commitments are domestically viable. Aseema Sinha offers a modification to this framework in two important respects. First, she shows how the specific negotiation structure of the international context shapes the domestic win set. Global rules need to be disaggregated and their variable effects analyzed more carefully than has been done from within the terms of the two-level model. Further, India?s experience with GATT and WTO offers the opportunity to exploit within case variation across time to analyze how global rules of the game affect and change domestic imperatives and interests.

Souza, Manoela. "India’s Accession to TRIPS: The IP Legislation Reform (2005) and its Reflections on India’s Foreign Policy on HIV/AIDS Matters" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA’s 49th ANNUAL CONVENTION, BRIDGING MULTIPLE DIVIDES, Hilton San Francisco, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Mar 26, 2008 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-04-17 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p252134_index.html>

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will discuss the relevance of India’s accession to the TRIPS-mandated regime for its foreign policy on HIV/AIDS matters. This study will investigate whether the formal accession to WTO’s norms regarding patents, through 2005’s third amendment, eventually brought about a new background for its foreign policy on HIV/AIDS. With concern for Doha’s flexibilities, this work intends to show how India’s pharma industry and local/global activism might have influenced, respectively, a watershed on the country’s advocacy on international health (especially with regard to anti-retroviral drugs).

See Gupta, Surupa. "The Institutional Basis of India?s Defensive Position on Agricultural Trade Policy" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 <Not Available>. 2009-02-04 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p181265_index.html

Here is the abstract:

This paper analyzes trade policymaking in India in the context of the ongoing negotiations on trade in agriculture at the WTO. During the past decade, the overall direction of India’s trade policy has become more liberal. However, India’s position on liberalization of trade in agriculture at multilateral trade negotiations is dominated by its defensive/protectionist interests expressed in terms of a focus on livelihood security rather than its aggressive/liberal interests in gaining market access. This presents a puzzle for existing trade theory which would expect India’s farm trade policy to be more liberal, given that about 80% of India’s farm prices are globally competitive. This paper adopts an institutional perspective, and argues that the policy is ultimately a product of the existing domestic agricultural policies and the new consultative trade policy-making apparatus. Reform of existing policies has proved difficult and the Ministry of Agriculture resists liberalization because it sees itself primarily as a protector of farmers’ interests. At the same time, the government has changed the institutions for making trade policy since 1998, giving the protectionist Ministry of Agriculture greater voice in decisions at the expense of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The former has often vetoed more liberal positions advocated by the Commerce Ministry. The Parliament, unlike in the west, plays a minor role in setting the tone of the policy since its ratification is not required. Moreover, although in India’s federal system state governments could have used their power to shape policy, they have not organized politically to press for liberalization, instead supporting the protectionist views espoused by the agriculture ministry.This paper also shows that conventional institution-based explanations of trade policy, mainly based on the US and West European experience, need to be modified when being applied to developing countries like India. For example, institutional theories suggest an association between democracies and liberal trade policies, but this case shows that democracies can sometimes be more protectionist. Discussions of the role of bureaucracies focus on the relation between bureaucratic autonomy and trade liberalization. However, some relevant bureaucracies are not autonomous, and some autonomous bureaucracies may not support liberalization. This research suggests that bureaucracies should not be treated as unitary actors.

Indian scientists have completed an eight-year task of translating and compiling Indian traditional knowledge into a database (that lists over 200,000 treatments and extends to 30 million pages) to prevent patents being granted on this knowledge by overseas patent jurisdictions. The library which has an online home will be made accessible to patent examiners in the European Patent office to prevent attempts at patenting existing traditional knowledge. The EPO and the Government of India have entered into an access agreement that should be interesting to look at. Here is the news item from the website of the EPO:

India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL): A powerful tool for patent examiners

On 2 February 2009 the Indian government granted access to its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a unique database that houses the country’s traditional medical wisdom, to examiners at the European Patent Office (EPO).

EPO examiners will use the extensive database to prevent attempts at patenting existing traditional knowledge, a practice described as "bio-piracy".

The co-operation between India and the EPO comes at a time when many countries are struggling to protect traditional and respected knowledge against exploitation, primarily in the pharmaceutical sector.

"We take this seriously. Countries with rich traditional and holistic knowledge often have to spend lots of money on opposition procedures. The database could prevent that by helping the EPO to grant properly scoped patents", said Paul Schwander, Director of Information Acquisition at the EPO.

An improved patent granting process

Experts at the EPO say that access to the 30-million-page database will help to correctly examine patent applications relating to traditional knowledge.

"With the TKDL, examiners have improved access to background information at an early stage of patent examination", Schwander said. "In the old scenario, a patent may have been granted and the countries had to present evidence against it after the fact".

Prominent cases of patent disputes include a US patent on the wound-healing properties of turmeric (revoked in 1997) as well as an anti-fungal product from the Indian Neem tree (revoked in 2008). Both herbal practices were evidence of traditional knowledge and the patents were rescinded.

In both instances, the Indian government needed to prove that the patented methods were not novel and were based on traditional knowledge. The process to challenge the granted patents proved lengthy and cumbersome as some traditional knowledge had only been documented in Sanskrit or other ancient writings and thus required extensive translation.

With the advent of the TKDL however, the once onerous process has been transformed into an organised and objective system. The texts, many of which are hundreds of years old, offer extensive details about ancient medical practices and can now be accessed digitally.

Moreover, the TKDL has translated these texts – first written in Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Urdu – into English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, granting easier accessibility to examiners.

A unique encyclopaedia

The TKDL is the result of a US$ 2 million joint project between five Indian government organisations, including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Institute of Science Communication and Informative Resources (NISCAIR).

Under the direction of Vinod Kumar Gupta, the head of NISCAIR, more than 150 experts in traditional medicine, law and computer science spent the past ten years arranging and classifying the TKDL.

Highlights of the vast database include:

• 54 authoritative textbooks on ayurvedic medicine
• Nearly 150,000 ayurvedic, unani and siddha medicines
• Over 1,500 physical exercises and postures in yoga, more than 5,000 years old

Protecting prior art

The TKDL allows examiners to compare patent applications with existing traditional knowledge. New patent applications need to demonstrate significant improvements and inventiveness compared to prior art in their field. If the medical use of an herb is a traditional practice, and thereby public knowledge, it is considered prior art under EPO regulations.

"Even if a treatment is only available in Sanskrit in an Indian library, it belongs to the prior art because it had been disclosed openly in the public domain at an earlier point in time", Schwander said.

If a company seeks to patent the medicinal use of an herb listed in the TKDL, EPO examiners conduct a thorough investigation. "In some cases this will lead to a reduction of the scope of the patent or its refusal", Schwander said.

However, the company may still be granted a patent on a new method for industrial-scale production of the active ingredient of the herb, for example, if this process is new and inventive, Schwander explained.

"The public may perceive this as bio-piracy, but there is a difference. The patent applicants would not claim ownership of the active ingredient itself. The scope would then be limited to a method of producing or isolating the ingredient".

Shedding light on gray areas

The TKDL is so precise that it lists the time, place and medium of publication for prior art. This new catalogue system, called the Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC), ensures meticulous documentation.

The classification sheds light on what used to be considered gray area. Before the advent of the TKDL, any bio-prospector for a pharmaceutical company could dig up ancient medical wisdom and lay claim to the practice’s healing ability without consequence.

Now, thanks to the TKDL, patent examiners can prove exactly when and where a medical treatment became public knowledge, stymieing would-be bio-pirates.

A collection aimed at Patent Offices

Examiners at the EPO will use secure access methods to work with the TKDL. To measure efficiency, the EPO will count cases in which the database proved helpful.

Other countries have also opened their digital archives on traditional medical knowledge to EPO patent examiners. In 2008, the Chinese patent office (SIPO) granted the EPO access to its 32 000-entry database on traditional Chinese medicine.

"It’s a win-win situation for all involved. These databases help the EPO improve the relevance and content of prior art searches, while the countries holding traditional knowledge can protect their assets against misappropriation", Schwander said.

A Mint story gives more background:

The Indian government is also in talks with the US Patents and Trademark Office, or USPTO, to extend the initiative to that country.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, India’s largest state-managed research agency, will begin sharing the home-grown catalogue with EPO later this month. CSIR and EPO recently signed an access agreement to this effect. This will likely result in at least 40 patent filings in Europe getting rejected, which could have otherwise passed muster.

“The EPO doesn’t give a patent for an invention which has already been known in public anywhere else,” Rainer Osterwalder, director, media relations, EPO, told Mint by email.

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, or TKDL, has been created by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, or Niscair, a CSIR body, and contains a 24-million-page searchable database that translates text from Sanskrit into English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese.

“TKDL provides a new major source…in technical fields that are sometimes concerned with questions of traditional knowledge,” Osterwalder said.

CSIR has collaborated with the health ministry’s department of Ayush (Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddhi and homeopathy) to make this happen.

A CSIR official said that though 2,000 existing patents can now be challenged, there were no plans to initiate litigation. “This is meant as a deterrent…though technically we can initiate litigation saying that these patents are based on well-known formulations, it would be too expensive and long-drawn,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“This is a very positive step for us in protecting traditional knowledge. It’s a big achievement,” Samir Brahmachari, director general of CSIR, said over the phone. The next step is to take this initiative to the US. S. Jalaja, secretary, department of Ayush, said: “This is a big breakthrough for us and we are also in talks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a similar agreement.”

This will likely result in at least 40 patent filings in Europe getting rejected

Patenting of products that are based on of India’s traditional knowledge has long been an issue the government has been struggling to resolve. In a widely reported case, EPO in 1995 granted a patent on the anti-fungal properties of neem. India opposed the patent, which was finally revoked and invalidated after 10 years of litigation. Again in 1995, USPTO had granted a patent on the wound healing properties of turmeric that was revoked in 1997.

“India did fight successfully the revocation of patent on wound healing property of turmeric at United States Patent and Trademark Office and (a) patent on anti-fungal properties of neem at European Patent Office,” Niscair director V.K. Gupta, who is also lead coordinator for the project, said in a 2006 report. “However…(a) legal battle on revocation is extremely expensive and time consuming.”

For anything to be granted a patent, the applicant must prove that it is novel and not previously known. “Indian traditional knowledge is prior art, which means it is already known publicly. Hence, once TKDL opens out to EPO, anyone applying for a patent on which we hold traditional knowledge will not be successful,” said Elizabeth Varkey, an advocate at the Kerala high court.

“Any patents that have been granted already and fall under TKDL can also be revoked, though that would be a long, expensive process,” she said.

EPO, however, is unsure of the extent to which TKDL will be applicable. “Many cases affected by aspects of traditional knowledge are occurring in the field of medicinal preparations. We estimate that at the EPO, about 100 patent applications per year are related to such aspects, but not all of them relate to subjects covered by TKDL,” Osterwalder said.

There is an argument that the database be used other ways too. “The government should also think about negotiating access rights (to TKDL) to private parties and other non-governmental entities. Given that the new chemical entities pipeline is drying up, innovators need to focus more on traditional knowledge that offer potentially unique insights for new drugs,” said Shamnad Basheer, professor of intellectual property law at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

“Also private parties could then challenge patent applications that misappropriate Indian traditional knowledge.”

The comment by Shamnad Basheer quoted above on granting access rights to private parties and NGOs is interesting but likely to raise issues of compensation for use of this knowledge by private parties. The codification of this knowledge in a repository owned by the government will have ramifications for who will now benefit from this.

Business Line published an article recently that discusses ministerial turf battles in the way trade policy is made in India. Here is the article in full with items of interest highlighted for those interested in trade policy formulation issues:

Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Jan. 15 The Centre has rejected the proposal to accord statutory status to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) while also extending its mandate to provide advice on tariff policy and other trade-related matters.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which met here on Thursday, did not accept the recommendation by an Expert Committee under Prof Y.K. Alagh to confer statutory status to the CACP.

The proposal, had it gone through, would have made it mandatory for the Centre to fix the minimum support prices (MSP) for various crops at levels recommended by the CACP. The underlying idea here was to insulate fixation of MSPs from political pressures and subject these, instead, to rational economic principles.

But the Expert Committee’s suggestion was rejected by the Cabinet, ostensibly at the instance of the Union Agriculture Ministry. The latter held that the CACP recommends MSPs well before the start of the cropping season, whereas the crop gets harvested much later.

‘No flexibility’

If the Centre was bound by the MSPs recommended by the CACP, there would be no flexibility to respond to changing market conditions and fix procurement prices accordingly. In such a situation, it was felt that the CACP’s present status as a purely ‘recommendatory body’ be maintained, official sources told Business Line.

The CCEA also rejected the Expert Committee’s proposal to extend the CACP’s terms of reference so as to include, “To advice from time to time on the tariff structure and other measures relating to imports and exports of agricultural commodities and their processed products”.

This would, in effect, have made it mandatory for the Centre to consider the CACP’s views regarding increases or decreases in import tariffs for any agri-commodity and measures to restrict or ban export/import of particular products.

“The opposition in this case came mainly from the Commerce Ministry, which expressed reservations on any role for the CACP to advice on trade and tariff matters, so as to integrate these with MSP policy,” the sources said.

“The Commerce people felt the CACP cannot be authorised to advice on what the tariff levels for individual commodities should be, so as to maintain the MSPs recommended by it. This may result in trade distortions which go against the basic economic principles of free trade,” they pointed out.

The Commerce Ministry, on the contrary, held that the CACP incorporate a member representing the Ministry. This would, in turn, ensure that the CACP would recommend MSPs and related actions that “do not come in conflict with broad trade objectives” and “are compatible with the World Trade Organisation and other bilateral and multilateral arrangements,” the sources added.

The CCEA also rejected the Expert Committee’s suggestion to expand the coverage of MSP and the official cost of Cultivation Scheme to horticulture crops, i.e. fruits and vegetables.

Methodological issues

The Prof Alagh-headed Committee was constituted by the Agriculture Ministry on May 7, 2003 to study various methodological issues in fixing MSPs of crops. Its terms of reference also included examining the existing mandate of the CACP and whether or not to reposition its role so as to provide greater teeth to its recommendations.

The Committee submitted its report on May 31, 2005, which was then forwarded to other Ministries (Finance, Commerce, Food, Planning Commission) for seeking their views before being placed for the Union Cabinet’s consideration.

The author of the report in question, Prof Alagh discusses ministerial turf battles and the difficulties of policy coordination because of bureaucrats unwilling to give up power. See his comment in the Financial Express here. An excerpt:

Finally the real differences. Apparently the government, or parts of it, does not want tariffs to be integrated with price policy in agriculture. It therefore does not agree with the Alagh Committee’s real concern that integrated policy should be followed to give incentives for a competitive agriculture. The report takes crops, works out the efficient farmer set and shows how within tariff bounds, with some monetary policy built in (the Venugopal Reddy simulation), it is possible to hold the farmer’s hand for the transitional period in which he moves over to a lower cost per unit of output, not land, or in which global trade is modernised following Kamal Nath. The report describes this in terms of ‘efficiency pricing’ or other variants of long-range marginal cost pricing, fully aware that it is not talking of industry. Anybody who reasons against this needs to do serious home work.

There seem to be sections of government that don’t want this. We don’t know why. Turf battles could be one reason. Policy coordination is always easy in a textbook and a report but normal persons don’t like to give up power. Only the exceptional become more powerful by shedding power and coordinating for the larger good. Another reason could be the fear of rule based systems for these can dilute the power play in weak coalition regimes. There is a trend in not having a chapter on perspectives in the Eleventh Plan and not accepting the challenge of creating a medium term environment for competitive agriculture. But then you are in real trouble, for to have MSPs and separately free imports is like pouring water in a leaking bucket. You did this at great cost a few years ago in the grain crisis period. Finally there could be the fear of the unknown.

But we are traveling in uncharted territory. After the dithering of the nineties, we are doing a superb job in the WTO. I am sure whatever the first reaction, having accepted a trade dominated regime, we will finally accept the challenge of the rational transition to it. The friendly ghost of the Alagh Committee will keep on coming back and will be exorcised only when we are fully competitive in our agriculture.

Those interested in going deeper, can find out more about the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (the CACP) here.

The role of the Indian parliament in trade policy making has mostly been marginal. While many countries (both developed and developing) struggle with ensuring democratic control over trade policy making through parliamentary supervision, the issue in the Indian context, needs to be considered in the light of the low quality of parliamentary governance in India in policy making overall. While some (perhaps rightly) argue that more parliamentary supervision in India of trade policy making will make any policy reform impossible and create efficiency concerns, the need for democratic control over trade policy making – a component of governance that affects every citizen, is also an issue that cannot be ignored in the long term.

This call from one of India’s leftist political parties for the India-EU FTA to be debated in Parliament is therefore important. According to the Hindu newspaper:

Ahead of the ninth India-European Union Summit in Marseille, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday asked the United Progressive Alliance Government not to make any commitment on the Free Trade Agreement without a debate in Parliament.

As Prime Minster Manmohan Singh leads the Indian delegation for the summit on Monday, the Polit Bureau, in a statement, said it was a matter of concern that while the European Parliament had already discussed the issues related to the proposed FTA, the Indiangovernment was yet to share details of the negotiations with Parliament and people.

…

The draft proposals, existing negotiating positions and studies conducted by the Indian government on the India-EU FTA should be placed and debated in Parliament before it initiated any further step, the statement said.

Here’s another interesting paper by Julien Chaisse.

It has several themes. These include – implementation of WTO agreements in India; the “direct effect” of WTO law in India; compliance by India with adverse WTO dispute settlement rulings; overview of how domestic Indian law has been influenced by the WTO; and India’s integration into the WTO system.

See Julien L. Chaisse. Ensuring the Conformity of Domestic Law with World Trade Organisation Law – India as a case study. New Delhi (India): Rajdhani Press/CSH, 2005.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/julien_chaisse/2

Abstract

The World Trade Organisation (WTO), established in 1995, provides a contractual framework within which Member States undertake to implement regulations and legislation for foreign trade which cover a wide range of sectors. The purpose of this study to examine why and how WTO rules tend to be effectively implemented and how much it has changed Indian laws. WTO-conformity of Indian law is made compulsory for two reasons. First, by saying that, “each Member shall ensure the conformity of its laws, regulations and administrative procedures with its obligations as provided in the annexed Agreements”, the Agreement establishing WTO affirms the obligation for all the Members to ensure such compliance. The legal consequences of such an obligation are discussed in regards with effective adaptation of Indian domestic law. Secondly, WTO is equipped with a new dispute settlement system which controls the correct compliance of domestic law with WTO-conformity. The contribution of this mechanism in ensuring WTO-conformity is evaluated, in regards with India implication in disputes. On the theoretical aspect this study identifies the particular characteristics proper to the WTO which ensure implementations to its law and obliges India as other Members to comply with the international standard. On the practical aspect, it gives an overview of the recent innovations or changes in Indian laws which are presently applicable and simultaneously to assess India integration in international trade governance.