Orlando, Florida: Not all WTO travails can be traced to the US' shortsighted opposition to the rules-based multilateral trading system. There's also India. While the US has done its best to undermine WTO through chaotic unilateral trade actions and scofflaw trade tactics, India, despite presenting itself as a stalwart supporter of the institution, is stonewalling reforms that would make it more responsive to the trade challenges of the 21st c.
Most prominently, India's blocking the adoption of Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA), a plurilateral agreement among 131 WTO members, including 94 developing countries. Now that Turkiye and South Africa have withdrawn their opposition, India stands alone in preventing the agreement from becoming part of the WTO rulebook.
