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Focusing on trading issues such as solutions for Public Stock Holding, and outlining the objectives of the WTO, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal participated in the 14th BRICS Trade Ministers' Meeting on July 26, 2024, in Russia.
The theme of BRICS this year is "Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development". The Commerce Secretary expressed the need for strengthening multilateral trading system with WTO at its core, effective functioning of Joint Value Chains, expanding interaction among MSMEs, India's successful story on Digitalization and e-commerce and the relevance of cooperation among Special Economic Zones. On the strengthening Multilateralism, he reiterated on the collective efforts to find a solution for long pending mandated issues of WTO, in particular, the development aspect and the Special and Differential treatment. He stressed on the urgent need for resolving the issues including the permanent solution to Public Stock Holding, constitution of two-tier Dispute Settlement system, WTO Reform to be based on the principles & objectives of WTO, leading to more responsive to development requirements of emerging economies, invigorating the WTO through "30 for 30" bringing in alt least 30 operational improvements to the WTO before the organization completes 30 years in 2025. He stressed upon strengthening the resiliency of supply chain through decentralization and diversification, furthering co-operation in value chains through G20 generic Mapping framework for GVCs and by enunciating guiding principles for collaboration. In this context, as an initial step towards digitalization, he stressed on paperless trade including digitalization of documents like Bill of lading. He emphasized the importance of collaboration to ensure access to affordable emerging technologies, which are crucial for green transition and climate resilience. The Commerce Secretary also mentioned the importance on MSME related developments and their integration with the Global Value Chains. While re-iterating the Jaipur call for action for enhancing access to information for MSMEs issued during India's Presidency in 2023, he lauded the Russian Presidency for carrying forward the initiative by making efforts to compile certain basic information pertaining to MSMEs among the BRICS members. While referring to India's success story of building up an open source India Stack of Critical Digital Public infrastructure as part of its digital industrialization following the core principles of open access, transparency, trust and respect for data protection and privacy, expressed India's willingness to share its experience with the BRICS countries on the e-revolution in the domains of payments, e-commerce, national identity, banking, education etc,In conclusion, Commerce Secretary laid stress upon the importance of collaborative efforts and commitment along with resilience, unity and transparency to face challenges under the principles of compassion, empathy and understanding, for a common brighter future of BRICS countries. (ANI)
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