India has said that efforts to facilitate essential cross-border flow of goods and services to tackle the Covid-19 health crisis, being propagated by several World Trade Organisation members such as South Korea, the UK, China, Canada and Australia, must also include cross-border movement of medical professionals.

“We are surprised to see that the signatories of the joint statement did not include this critical category of doctors and nurses in their recommendations on the essential movement of people, and recommend that they consider adding it to make the statement fit for purpose,” according to India’s statement at the recent WTO General Council meeting. The statement was in response to the joint ministerial declaration made by 47 nations on improving the flow of goods and services to handle the global pandemic effectively.

Other signatories to the joint ministerial declaration include Norway, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Seychelles, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Chile, Colombia, and the UAE.

With Covid-19 causing large-scale disruptions in production, transportation, demand and supply worldwide, the WTO has predicted that global trade will shrink by 13 to 32 per cent this year and that the adverse effects on globalisation may continue for several years.

Exports by India

India’s exports, too, declined 60.4 per cent in April 2020 to $10.36 billion, as production came to a halt during the month due to the nation-wide lockdown and cancellation of global orders.

At the GC meeting, India’s Permanent Representative JS Deepak,affirmed that India supported the adoption of trade facilitation measures that are consistent with the WTO Trade Facilitation agreement, and in line with the existing balance of rights and obligations of members under the WTO agreements.

Drawing attention to the line in the joint statement of the 47 nations specifying that emergency measures taken in the wake of the pandemic should be “targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary”, Deepak said that in the same vein, temporary reductions of customs duties on essential medical and agricultural products were well within the rights of a WTO member.

“Therefore, we do not support permanent tariff liberalisation as a response to a temporary crisis,” the Indian statement pointed out, alluding to the references made by several developed nations that called for tariff cuts.

On the point regarding the establishment of a consultation mechanism between the relevant authorities of the signatory countries to identify and address trade disruptions that affect trade in essential goods, India called for greater clarity from the signatories on whether they envisage this to be a temporary, ad-hoc mechanism for the duration of the pandemic or something more permanent.

“It is only when we are overall satisfied that the joint declaration is balanced and reflects the needs of developing countries as well can we consider subscribing to it,” said a government official.

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