India calls for WTO-compliant responses to global trade distortions at G20 meeting

At the concluding day of the G20 Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Milwaukee, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal set out India’s position on structural excess capacity, the Most-Favoured-Nation principle, forced labour in supply chains and broader trade distortions.

The Indian position, as recorded by the Commerce Ministry, was that corrective trade measures should be transparent, evidence-based and consistent with World Trade Organization rules. The issue is politically and economically contested: countries differ over what counts as unfair subsidy, excess capacity or coercive trade practice, and over whether unilateral tariffs solve or deepen the problem.

The WTO’s Most-Favoured-Nation principle generally requires a member to extend a trade advantage given to one member to others, subject to permitted exceptions. Debates over reform therefore touch the predictability and non-discrimination principles that underpin the multilateral system.

For civil-services preparation, the development is useful for understanding how India tries to preserve multilateral rules while retaining policy space for development and industrialisation. The statement records India’s negotiating position; it is not a G20-wide legal settlement on excess capacity, forced labour or MFN reform.