WTO Deadlocked: Understanding the Dynamics of International Trade

This book analyses the contemporary state of affairs at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and India`s negotiating agenda at its various forums. The WTO is important for all the countries as more than 96 per cent of world trade is controlled by bodies affiliated to it. This book identifies areas in the WTO agreements that require systematic reforms. It also discusses the negotiating history of GATT/WTO, especially after the conclusion of the WTO negotiations in 1995, while not overlooking the failures of the Seattle Ministerial and Doha negotiations. It delves into the rights and interests of different interest-groups within the WTO.

Many WTO members nowadays believe that bilateral and regional trade agreements are the only ways to counter the problems involved with multilateral negotiations at the WTO. Concerned about this, the WTO has recently set up a committee to look into the increase in regional trade agreements and free trade areas. This book argues for multilateralism and therefore, a stronger WTO as a rule-based organisation.

This is an opportune time for WTO members to examine what is at stake and reconsider their positions. In this context, the book adds considerable value and will be of immense help to Indian negotiators and the industry. It will equally interest those involved in research in the fields of Economics, Politics and Sociology.

Debashis Chakraborty is Associate Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Kolkata. His research interests include international trade and WTO policy issues, RTAs, environmental sustainability considerations, economic development in India and India’s intra-industry trade (IIT) relations. Dr Chakraborty has completed a number of projects for the Government of India, corporate bodies and international agencies including World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat and others. He has been involved in empirical economic research for more than a decade and extensively published his research articles in national and international refereed journals. He also has 11 volumes (including both co-authored and co-edited ones) to his credit. His co-edited volume entitled Trade, Investment and Economic Development in Asia: Empirical and Policy Issues has been published recently. Dr Chakraborty is currently working on the level and determinants of India’s IIT across sectors with partners and its implications on labour market outcomes. Of late, he is also focusing on the popularization of sustainability narrative among readers in wider forums. Dr Chakraborty is presently a co-editor of Foreign Trade Review (SAGE), which is a comprehensive forum for disseminating theoretical and empirical research on the issues related to international trade and investment.

Over the years, Dr Chakraborty has been involved in training a large pool of government officials and corporate executives on trade policy and competitiveness analysis, and the application of quantitative techniques to form future policy decisions.