India on Saturday said it has strongly opposed the inclusion of the China-led Investment Facility for Development (IFD) agreement into the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework and expressed concern over its systemic implications.The issue was raised at the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) being held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said such a move could weaken the fundamental structure of the institution.“The inclusion of the IFD agreement risks erasing the WTO’s functional boundaries and undermining its fundamental principles,” Goyal said in a social media post.He said, “At #WTOMC14, taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi Ji’s philosophy of truth prevails over conformity, India showed courage to stand alone on the contentious issue of IFD agreement and did not agree to its inclusion in the WTO framework as an Annex 4 agreement.”Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement contains multilateral trade agreements that are binding only on members that have acceded to them, as opposed to multilateral agreements that apply to all members.Goyal said that as part of the WTO reform discussions, members are deliberating on safeguards and legal safeguards for multilateral agreements before integrating any such outcome into the framework.“Given the systemic issue, India expressed its openness to goodwill, comprehensive discussion and constructive engagement under the WTO reform agenda,” he said.India had also opposed this agreement during the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi.The Investment Facility for Development proposal was first proposed in 2017 by China and a group of countries that are heavily dependent on Chinese investment, including countries with sovereign wealth funds. If this agreement is adopted, it will be binding only on the signatory members.
