WTO News

India has locked horns with the West at the 4 day World Trade Organisation ministerial conference that is taking place in Abu Dhabi. During his speech, India's commerce secretary said there were serious concerns about the increasing use of trade protectionist unilateral measures, which are being justified in the name of environment protection. Watch

Speaking at a virtual interactive session along with Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva, Jaishankar also said that Europe needs to keep open the supply chains to boost manufacturing of the vaccines

Merchandise exports and imports remained robust in April despite localized lockdowns across the country, showing signs of increasing external and domestic demand for goods, leaving behind a four-month-high trade deficit of $15

The group -- whose members also include Australia, Brazil, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland -- agreed to the initiative

Smaller countries, with less population, have more staff in the secretariat than IndiaGeneva-based WTO is a multi-lateral body having 164 members

By advancing two women--Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee--to the final round of the selection process, the WTO will likely have the first female director general in its 25-year history

There is also no agreement on issues like sustainability and market-oriented policies among G20 members with “most” supporting the ideas

Here are penpics of the eight candidates running to become the next WTO director-general

Three Africans, two Europeans, two Asians and one Latin American quickly threw their hats in the ringAny future WTO leader will head an organisation mired in stalled trade talks and struggling to curb trade tensions between the United States and China

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says trade will be important to help the global recovery from the pandemic induced recessionCovid has accelerated onset of digital economy and started discussions around accessibility to medicines, Okonjo-Iweala says