Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Andhra Pradesh Governor S. Abdul Nazeer, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister Piyush Goyal in a group photograph during the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam on Friday. | Photo credit: ANI
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India was willing to play a leadership role in driving WTO reforms, but stressed that the nature of these reforms must be shaped in consultation with developing and least developed countries to ensure they serve global welfare rather than the agenda of a few developed countries.
He said the world recognizes India’s strength and leadership and the country is a responsible global citizen and will continue to be the voice of the Global South.
“We would like to lead reforms (in the World Trade Organization). But this reform will be decided after consultation with other developing and less developed countries so that we can really work for the good of the world and not just for the agenda of a few developed countries,” he said.
The minister was in Visakhapatnam to attend the CII Partnership Summit 2025.
Mr. Goyal was responding to a question on WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s remarks that India should take the lead in the WTO reform process. She was also in Visakhapatnam for a summit.
Developed countries, including the US, are pushing for reforms in the WTO. These conversations have gained momentum in recent years. They are demanding reforms in areas such as the dispute settlement mechanism, special and differential treatment of developing countries and the way agreements are negotiated in the WTO.
India consistently states that the reform agenda must be decided on the basis of consensus among all member states.
According to the Geneva-based 166-member WTO, the issue of reform is broad and covers many aspects of the WTO’s work.
In his meeting with the WTO chief on Friday (November 14, 2025), Mr Goyal said they discussed the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC) to be held in Cameroon in March next year and various other aspects including reforms.
The MC is the highest decision-making body of this multilateral organization that deals with matters related to global trade. It also settles disputes between member countries. India has been a member since 1995.
“We have a demand for a permanent solution to the issue of holding public stocks. We want the dispute resolution mechanism to be restored. There are many agendas that we have discussed,” he said.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters about her meeting with the minister, Ms. Ngozi said, “We discussed the WTO, we also need to strengthen the multilateral system and we would like India to take the lead in that.”
Regarding India’s role in the next MC, she said India can play an “extremely” important role in this as the country is dynamic, innovative and has many best practices that can be shared with other developing countries.
“We will also look at some of the issues that India is interested in, like past mandates related to public shareholding. How we should do that, past mandates in the reform agenda. So we would like India to be very active and be a leader in the reform process,” she said.
She added that some of the criticism of India and other emerging economies is valid, and so is the criticism of the US.
“Let us use this opportunity of the crisis … to resolve the challenges in the WTO and strengthen the system,” she said.
She added that it was good that India was negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US, which had unilaterally imposed high tariffs.
Published – 15 Nov 2025 10:54 IST
