INDIA AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION: CHARTING A NEW MODEL OF TRADE LAW CAPACITY BUILDING, with James Nedumpara

Mexico - 1 November 2018

Trade topics: International Trade Law

This study provides one of the most practically-informed and empirically grounded analysis of how India has strengthened its dispute settlement participation in trade law through capacity building with the help of cost-effective strategies employed at the domestic level. In particular, this chapter examines the steps that India has taken to transform its domestic institutions and key participants by responding proactively to the demands of the WTO legal system.

Methodologically, this chapter draws from several interactions and interviews the authors have made with a large number of key public and private sector participants working on trade policy matters. The authors of this chapter in their course of work have interacted with multiple stakeholders cutting across government, industry, law firms and the civil society. One among us (Nedumpara) is currently heading a think tank established by the Government of India for building trade and investment law capacity within the Department of Commerce and other allied government agencies. The second author (Bahri)is the co-chair of WTO for Mexico and has spent several years researching this topic with an empirical approach. She hasrecently published a comprehensive work on dispute settlement capacity building from the perspective of developing countries. The insights and inferences that we have drawn based on our previous studies inform and guide our analysis and conclusions in this chapter.

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