WTO: Dispute settlement mechanism, investment facilitation in focus at Abu Dhabi ministerial conference, say experts

Prabhash Ranjan, Vice Dean at Jindal Global Law School, emphasiszed that the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism, hailed as the crown jewel of the system, is facing challenges. The US has impeded its functioning by blocking the appointment of appellate body members. India and other developing countries are urging the restoration of the appellate body to reinstate a two-tier dispute settlement process. The deadline for this crucial decision looms by the end of the year.

While India traditionally believes that investment should be outside the WTO's purview, Ranjan acknowledged that India is already implementing several provisions of the investment facilitation agreement in its liberal foreign investment regime. However, the debate still centers on whether investment should indeed be part of the WTO, and the challenge lies in achieving a multilateral mandate.

Jayant Dasgupta, former Ambassador to WTO, highlighted that while India has agreed to the first part of the fisheries subsidies agreement in 2022, there are still issues with the second part, which deals with overcapacity, overfishing, and subsidies.

Dasgupta said, “On the issue of overcapacity and overfishing, the draft text is silent about distant water fishing. Now, in the exclusive economic zone, which extends to 200 nautical miles from the coast of a country, the disciplines are all very well, but for distant water fishing, where a lot of fish stock is getting depleted and dangerously depleted for regeneration, there is no discipline which is sought to be enforced.”

Developed countries and nations like China, Korea, and Taiwan have already subsidized their industrial fleets, posing challenges for India's fishing capabilities in distant waters, Dasgupta added.