India disagrees with WTO on fisheries sops

India has raised its concern over World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) fisheries negotiations. The global trade body’s chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, had sought information on ways to achieve a possible outcome through a questionnaire shared with the ambassadors from 50 countries. They responded in in their private capacities.

New Delhi asserted that the process is grossly erroneous” & “lacks credibility”. It stated that there is ambiguity over how the samplings were done, which members were called for and the criteria used to select them. “Lack of transparency in the process can lead us nowhere, if any, it will only create mistrust and confusion. The whole process, therefore, to us lacks credibility,” India opined. It also pointed out that ambassadors at the WTO in Geneva are not in their private capacities and hence, their personal opinion does not matter.