India to oppose discussion on non-trade issues at WTO

India is committed to the causes of the environment, labour reforms and women empowerment, but it will not support the developing nations' agenda to use the multilateral trade forum, World Trade Organisation (WTO), to discuss non-trade issues and create inequitable trade barriers on the sly, two officials aware of the development said on Wednesday.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

There are strong global agencies and forums for each of these crucial social issues and India is actively participating in them, hence there is no rationale for the WTO to make them part of trade, which would often lead to non-tariff barriers (NTBs), they said, requesting anonymity.

"On environment protection, India is leading from the front," one of them said citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who introduced "Mission LIFE" (Lifestyle for Environment) to the world at the 26th UN Climate

Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow. India has overachieved the milestones set by the UN-led forum, he said.

"Similarly, labour codes have initiated massive reforms for the working class, and women are reflected in the Modi government's new social stratification-farmers, youth, women, and poor," he added.