Overview
- Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will lead India’s delegation to the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé from March 26 to 29.
- India will press for a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security and seek a Special Safeguard Mechanism to counter import surges.
- Officials say India will push to restore a fully functional two-tier dispute settlement system and defend consensus-based, member-driven decision-making with special and differential treatment.
- With the e‑commerce moratorium on customs duties expiring March 31, India opposes another extension, citing developing-country revenue losses estimated at about $10 billion a year and unresolved definitions.
- A proposal to take the Investment Facilitation for Development agreement into the WTO as an Annex 4 plurilateral is backed by over 120 members, but India, South Africa and Turkiye question its mandate and insist any inclusion requires explicit consensus.