India at the WTO: From Uruguay to Doha and Beyond

This paper provides a critical analysis of the evolution of India’s engagement at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the last two decades. The Uruguay Round negotiations resulted in a major overhaul of the multilateral trading system and produced a multilateral bargain that is considered by many developing countries, especially India, to be lop-sided. The paper will consider the impact of this bargain on India’s position at the WTO going forward, especially during the ongoing Doha Round of WTO negotiations that began in 2001. While hope lingers that the Doha Round will finally conclude this year, several major issues remain unresolved. The paper examines India’s role in these negotiations as well as the larger issue of whether the Doha Round has the chance to live up to its initial promise of being a “Development Round”. Finally, the paper discusses whether and how the emergence of major developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil, has fundamentally altered the nature of the multilateral trading system.