EVENTS

Abstract: 

Rapid economic growth after the 1990s and accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 have led to the vast extension of theChinese economy and its ties with the rest of the global economy in many areas, especially trade,investment, and connectivity.WTO provided a multilateral forum to China for discussing its trade issues with more than two-third countries of the global community.China is a signatory to all major provisions of the WTO agreement. It is also making its presence felt in emerging trade and investment negotiations at the multilateral level such as electronic commerce, investment facilitation. 

The objective of the joint seminar is to discuss major features of China’s participation in the multilateral trading system, its moves at the WTO in the recent past and their implications for the global trade order in general and for India in particular. This discussion will bring a comprehensive and collective set of thoughts/opinions, to be used as guidance for policy makers and other trade-related stakeholders, on the role of China in the multilateral trading system and its implications for global trade and for India.

The key discussion points will be: 

• 1.Growth of China’s trade and investment and their implications;
• 2.state of playat the WTO on major existing and emerging issues such as future tariff liberalisation, address to non-tariff measures, trade in services, intellectual property rights, trade facilitation, electronic commerce, investment facilitation in the context of recent changes in China’s industrial policy, etc. and their implications;
• 3.China’s increasing role/contribution in shaping the future global trade order and its implications for India and;
• 4.Belt and Road Initiative and its implications for the future global trade order in general and connectivity in India’s neighbourhood

About the Speaker:
 
Ambassador (Dr) Mohan Kumar is Vice Dean and Professor of Diplomatic Practice at the Jindal School of International Relations. He is also the Executive Director of the Centre of WTO Studies and Economic Diplomacy of the Jindal Global University. He holds a Doctorate (PhD) from Sciences Po, Paris and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. Professor Kumar has had an outstanding career in the Indian Foreign Service lasting 36 years which culminated in his being India's Ambassador to France based in Paris. Professor's Kumar has enormous expertise in the area of international trade- he was India's lead negotiator first at the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and then at the WTO in crucial areas such as Intellectual Property Rights, Services, Dispute Settlement, Rules and Technical Barriers to Trade. 

Dr.Harsha Vardhana Singh is Executive Director, Brookings India, and Senior Fellow of the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises (Fletcher School). He is a Ph. D. in Economics from Oxford University, where he went as a Rhodes Scholar from India. He has worked for over three decades on international trade policy, development, infrastructure regulation and global governance. Dr. Singh was Deputy Director-General at World Trade Organization for eight years till 30th September 2013. His direct areas of responsibility included trade in agriculture, services, trade and environment, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and electronic commerce. 
 
Bipul Chatterjee is Executive Director, CUTS International, a leading non-governmental think-tank on economic policy research, advocacy and networking with its headquarters in Jaipur, India. He has done M.A. (Economics) from Delhi School of Economics, and B.Sc. (Economics) from University of Calcutta. He has published/edited several books and papers on political economy of trade and development. Other than the multilateral trading system, his current area of interest is boosting regional trade and economic integration in the Bay of Bengal region