As WTO Ministerial nears, India's position on Digital Trade in recent FTAs garners interest

As the leaders of the 166-member strong World Trade Organisation (WTO) are readying to meet at Yaoundé, Cameroon, for the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) from March 26 to 29, India’s negotiation position on two key aspects of digital trade – a decision on the maintenance of moratorium on imposition of customs duties on e-transmissions and whether the country agrees to the provisions under WTO's Electronic Commerce Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) which India is currently not a signatory - is keenly watched.

Shift in India’s trade stance raises questions

The curiosity over India’s position among international trade experts and stakeholders stems from the fact the country, which has been consistently supporting the developing world’s stance on opposing these provisions, is likely to have taken a different view while concluding the negotiations for a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) and in the interim FTA that is in the works with the United States (US). The texts of both the FTAs are not in the public domain as India-EU FTA text is undergoing final legal scrubbing while only a broad framework of the interim India-US trade deal has been finalised.

“The two deals are also supported by a host of unilateral measures and together seem to be at direct conflict with India’s long held positions at the multilateral level at the WTO.  How India keeps its voice as the Global South as it prepares for the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) scheduled for 26-29th March 2026 will be critical”, says Ranja Sengupta, Senior Researcher and Coordinator of Trade Programme, Third World Network (TWN).

The basis of the doubt that India has agreed to the US position on digital trade is the joint statement issued by both the countries on February 7 on the framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade. It had said that both countries have committed ‘to address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade and to set a clear pathway to achieve robust, ambitious, and mutually beneficial digital trade rules as part of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA)’.

India’s opposition to WTO e-commerce moratorium

India has been consistently opposing the current practice of not imposing Customs duties on electronic transmissions by WTO members due to an existing moratorium. The country felt that the decision was only helping the developed countries while developing economies were losing revenues due to their inability to tax cross border electronic trade. The final text of India-US Interim Agreement will reveal the exact nature of the ‘mutually beneficial digital trade rules’ India has agreed to and whether it is against its own stand at the WTO.

Similarly, the reason to sense a possible shift in India’s stance on JSI comes from the chapter by chapter summary of EU-India Free Trade Agreement published by European Commission on its website. It claims that the chapter on Digital Trade in EU-India FTA text integrates majority of the rules agreed under the WTO's Electronic Commerce Joint Initiative, of which India is not a member. ‘Importantly, it includes rules on the protection of software source code, which protect businesses from the mandatory disclosure of source code, and supports innovation in the EU technology sector. In addition, it contains rules on online consumer protection and the prevention of spam. This guarantees consumer protection in electronic commerce transactions and protects users from unsolicited direct marketing communications (spam)’, it states. As in the case of India-US Interim Agreement, fine print is required before one can conclude the extent of shift India has made in its stance on JSI.

India’s official stance has been that it will take a broader look at issues concerning the developing world during WTO negotiations while it will be more lenient in agreeing to trade partner’s demands in bilateral negotiations. In that sense, the government has been consistent in its approach even if it has taken divergent positions in FTAs and at the WTO level. What needs to be seen is whether this dilutes India’s negotiating power at the WTO or not.

The WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) is to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the multilateral trading system and to take action on the future work of the WTO.