Book Review: Abhijit Das and James J. Nedumpara (eds), WTO Dispute Settlement at Twenty: Insider’s Reflections on India’s Participation
| Published date | 01 May 2017 |
| Date | 01 May 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0015732516663303 |
| Author | Debashis Chakraborty |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Abhijit Das and James J. Nedumpara (eds), WTO Dispute Settlement at
Twenty: Insider’s Reflections on India’s Participation. New Delhi: Springer,
2016, €174.99/-, 255 pp., ISBN 978-981-10-0598-5.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has completed two decades of its existence
in 2015 and there is a need to understand the areas where the multilateral body has
been more successful vis-à-vis its predecessor, General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT). One area where the WTO has been truly successful in protecting
the principles of fair trade is the Dispute Settlement (DS), as implementing the
reverse consensus mechanism enhanced the efficiency of the system. The DS
mechanism functions as the safety valve of the multilateral trade architecture, as
the WTO-incompatible policies of the violating countries can be successfully
challenged, thereby retaining credence of the system.
Over the last two decades, India has participated in the DS system both as
complainant as well as respondent in more than 20 cases each. With gradual
reduction in tariffs, the reform agenda is shifting towards other regulatory barriers
and non-tariff measures (NTMs), thereby greatly expanding the scope for newer
disputes. In this context, the recent volume edited by Das and Nedumpara is a
well-structured and timely contribution to the literature, which analyzes the issues
emerging from select disputes involving India across various sectors and
measures.
The analysis by Das et al. presents an overall picture of India’s participation
at the WTO DS mechanism during the past two decades. While so far India has
challenged other countries actions at WTO DS forum to mitigate adverse trade
effects and to address systemic concerns leading to barriers, it has not yet
challenged a measure that could affect products beyond one sector. It preferred to
negotiate compensation rather than retaliate in general (barring one exception) in
case of win as complainant and complied with recommendations in case of defeat
as respondent. India’s participation, through case laws, has enriched the WTO DS
framework on one hand, while the engagement has facilitated maturity of local
law firms in India who gained first-hand experience on the other.
Kher noted that while India’s journey in the DS process started with a reserved
approach, it soon adapted itself with the rules of the game. Major focus of India in
combatting the disputes has been to protect the interest of the small producers in
sectors like textile and clothing, marine products, low-value engineering prod-
ucts, pharmaceuticals etc. As respondent, India faced several challenges at DS,
and the cases like India-Solar Cells underlined its resolve to help the domestic
Foreign Trade Review
52(2) 130–133
2017 Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0015732516663303
http://ftr.sagepub.com
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