India Concludes Eighth Trade Policy Review at WTO in Geneva
Eighth Trade Policy Review at the World Trade Organization (WTO): participation, tariff/customs narrative, and WTO reform expectations
- The WTO Trade Policy Review mechanism is designed to periodically examine Members’ trade and related policies to enhance transparency and enable constructive dialogue.
- Rajesh Agarwal reiterated that India’s trade policy reforms are continuous and positioned India’s tariff, customs, and FTA strategies within WTO-consistent principles balanced with developmental needs.
- WTO Members submitted written questions and made interventions during the Eighth TPR sessions, signalling increasing engagement with India’s trade policy direction.
- India described trade remedy investigations as transparent and evidence-based with due process and judicial oversight, and stated continued application of the Lesser Duty Rule in anti-dumping.
What happened: India’s Eighth Trade Policy Review concluded at WTO in Geneva
India completed the second and final session of its Eighth Trade Policy Review (TPR) at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. The Trade Policy Review mechanism is a WTO transparency and monitoring tool under which WTO Members periodically examine each Member’s trade and related policies, with the aim of enhancing transparency, strengthening adherence to WTO rules, and enabling constructive dialogue.
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal led India’s official delegation. In the closing remarks, the Commerce Secretary thanked WTO Members for active participation and reaffirmed that trade policy reform is continuous, targeting an open, transparent, and predictable trade and investment regime.
Use India’s WTO Trade Policy Review outcome to examine how WTO transparency mechanisms interact with domestic policy space—especially tariff design for development and anti-dumping trade remedy practices—within ongoing WTO reform debates.
