India Highlights Trade Reforms and Growth at 8th WTO Trade Policy Review

India's 8th Trade Policy Review at the WTO

India's eighth Trade Policy Review (TPR) began at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on 21 July 2026, with the second sitting scheduled for 23 July, covering the review period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025. Since India's TPRs are conducted once every five years, this review followed the seventh cycle held in January 2021. The Indian delegation was led by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, and the process itself had been underway since June 2025, with the Department of Commerce consulting more than a hundred ministries, departments, and organisations over fourteen months to prepare the Government Report. As of 20 July 2026, WTO members had submitted more than 900 questions for India's written responses, reflecting significant interest in India's growing economy and trade profile.

Understanding the Trade Policy Review Mechanism

The TPRM is not an enforcement tool but a transparency exercise conducted by the Trade Policy Review Body, which comprises the WTO's full membership. It allows members to periodically examine one another's trade policies and practices, with the frequency of review tied to a country's share of world trade. The review rests on two documents: a policy statement submitted by the member under review, and an independent report prepared by the WTO Secretariat.

The objective is to improve transparency, predictability, and accountability in the multilateral trading system rather than to enforce compliance.

India's Economic and Trade Performance

Opening the review, the Commerce Secretary highlighted India's resilience amid geopolitical tensions, supply-chain disruptions, and rising global protectionism. He noted that India recorded an average annual growth of nearly 8 per cent during the review period despite an exceptionally challenging global environment, and that exports reached a record USD 863.1 billion in 2025-26, marking a rise from USD 676.5 billion in 2021-22. He also framed India's task as advancing the prosperity of nearly one-fifth of humanity while pursuing the long-term vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

Reforms Showcased During the Review

India presented a wide reform basket meant to demonstrate both self-reliance and deeper global integration. Aatmanirbhar Bharat was projected not as protectionism but as a strategy for strengthening domestic manufacturing capability while embedding India further into Global Value Chains. Alongside this, the Jan Vishwas initiative was cited for regulatory simplification, and digital customs measures were highlighted as evidence of trade facilitation reform. India also pointed to logistics modernisation, an expanding Digital Public Infrastructure footprint for financial inclusion, and a growing emphasis on artificial intelligence, innovation, and start-up promotion.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat is strengthening domestic capabilities while integrating India more deeply into global value chains.

Beyond domestic reform, India drew attention to its expanding network of Regional Trade Agreements, sustained support for South-South Cooperation, and continuation of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, positioning itself as a development partner rather than merely a trade negotiator.

Recognition from the WTO and Member States

The Trade Policy Review Body acknowledged India as one of the fastest-growing major economies and specifically appreciated its leadership in digitally delivered services exports. Reforms in Digital Public Infrastructure, financial inclusion, and trade facilitation drew commendation, as did India's acceptance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies following the deposit of its Instrument of Acceptance. India's timely responses to advance questions were also cited as evidence of transparency under the mechanism.

Brazil, serving as Discussant, praised the Goods and Services Tax for creating a unified domestic market, welcomed India's digital trade reforms, and pointed to the Duty-Free Tariff Preference Scheme for Least Developed Countries and India's Digital Public Infrastructure as models other developing economies could draw upon.

The Electronic Commerce Agreement Dispute

The review was not without friction. India remains at odds with a 66-nation coalition over the Agreement on Electronic Commerce, disputing the legality of operationalising it outside formal multilateral consensus. India's position rests on Article X.9 of the Marrakesh Agreement, under which incorporating any new plurilateral pact into Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement requires consensus among the entire membership. Annex 4 currently holds only two binding plurilateral pacts — the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft and the Revised Agreement on Government Procurement — and attempts to add the e-commerce pact failed to secure consensus at the General Council in December 2025.

Pending multilateral consensus, the Agreement will remain an Annex 4 agreement-in-waiting.

Following that deadlock, the participating members issued a Declaration of Interim Arrangements to operationalise the pact regardless, prompting India to formally question the institutional and legal basis for a partial-membership deal — including, separately, challenging the WTO Secretariat's authority to administer an agreement that sits outside the formal rulebook. The European Union, notably, used its own TPR statement to press India to reconsider its opposition, arguing that plurilateral agreements should be seen as tools to modernise the WTO rather than threats to multilateralism. This exposes the deeper fault line within the organisation: proponents see Joint Statement Initiatives as a pragmatic route around consensus paralysis on new-age trade rules, while India contends that allowing subsets of members to operationalise unapproved agreements erodes the multilateral character of the trading system itself.

Significance for India

The TPR functioned as more than a technical compliance exercise; it served as a platform for India to project itself as a responsible stakeholder shaping global trade governance rather than merely responding to it. Alongside the formal proceedings, India organised an exhibition of Indian products and traditional papier-mâché handicrafts, using cultural diplomacy to reinforce its economic narrative. Taken together, the review demonstrated India's attempt to balance Aatmanirbhar Bharat with deeper global integration, underscored its expanding role in digital trade and services exports, and strengthened its credibility heading into ongoing WTO reform negotiations — even as its stand on the e-commerce agreement signals that this credibility will continue to be tested against the demands of major trading partners.

Conclusion

India's eighth Trade Policy Review captured a country simultaneously seeking validation for its reform trajectory and defending a principled, if contested, position on multilateral process. Its economic performance and digital-led reforms earned broad appreciation from the WTO membership, yet the standoff over the Electronic Commerce Agreement reveals an unresolved tension at the heart of the organisation — between the pragmatism of coalition-led rule-making and the constitutional commitment to consensus that has long defined the WTO's legitimacy. How this tension resolves will shape not only India's future trade diplomacy but the very architecture of twenty-first century multilateralism.