Jagtik Vayapar Sangtanecha Onama

Summary

Jagtik Vyapar Sanghatanecha Onama (“Primer on the World Trade Organisation”) is a short Marathi-language explanatory booklet issued by Shetkari Prakashan, the publishing arm of the Shetkari Sanghatana (the Maharashtra farmers’ movement founded by Sharad Joshi). It is a free adaptation (“swair Marathikaran”) of CUTS International’s English primer ABC of the WTO, originally published in Jaipur in July 2002 by the consumer-interest organisation CUTS, with a foreword by CUTS Secretary-General Pradeep S. Mehta. The Marathi rendering was prepared by Shri Dnyaneshwar M. Shelar of Aurangabad and published on 27 January 2005 from Jalna, priced at ten rupees. The publisher’s note records that the booklet is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Arvind Vaman Kulkarni, who founded Shetkari Prakashan.

The publisher’s preface, signed by Sureshchandra Mhatre, situates the booklet within the Shetkari Sanghatana’s long-standing pro-liberalisation stance: the Sanghatana, under Sharad Joshi, was the only Indian farmers’ movement to actively support the Dunkel Draft and the creation of the WTO, on the grounds that an open economy and rules-based world trade serve cultivator interests better than the protectionist licence-permit raj. Mhatre argues that ordinary Marathi readers, farmers and politicians remain ignorant of what the WTO actually is, that media coverage has been polemical and fragmented, and that reactive opposition (“WTO mhanje bhoot”) has prevented India from using the agreement strategically. The booklet is offered as plain-language correction.

The body is structured as a question-and-answer textbook of roughly thirty short chapters. Early chapters explain the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 30 October 1947, Geneva, 23 founding signatories including India), the eight rounds of multilateral negotiations from 1947 to 1994, the Uruguay Round and the Dunkel Draft of December 1993, and the birth of the WTO on 1 January 1995 with 128 members (144 by 2002, after China’s accession as the 143rd and Taiwan as the 144th). Subsequent chapters cover the difference between GATT and WTO, the WTO’s Ministerial Conference, General Council and Director-General structure, the Singapore, Geneva, Seattle and Doha ministerials, special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries, the Doha Development Agenda of November 2001, and the case for why India should remain a WTO member rather than retreat into bilateral isolation. The tone throughout is matter-of-fact and pro-engagement, framing the WTO as an opportunity to be worked, not a conspiracy to be denounced.

Key points

• The booklet is a free Marathi adaptation by Dnyaneshwar M. Shelar of CUTS International’s English primer ‘ABC of the WTO’ (Jaipur, July 2002), published by Shetkari Prakashan from Jalna on 27 January 2005 at ten rupees.
• The publisher’s note explicitly identifies the Shetkari Sanghatana, led by Sharad Joshi, as the only Indian mass organisation that actively supported the Dunkel Draft and the formation of the WTO on cultivator-welfare grounds.
• Sureshchandra Mhatre’s preface dedicates the booklet to Dr. Arvind Vaman Kulkarni, the founder of Shetkari Prakashan, and laments that media coverage of the WTO has been reactive, fragmented and ill-informed.
• Chapter 1 traces GATT to 30 October 1947 in Geneva with 23 founding signatories (including India), and notes that the planned International Trade Organisation never came into being because the US Congress refused to ratify it.
• The booklet documents the eight GATT rounds (Geneva 1947, Annecy 1949, Torquay 1950-51, Geneva 1956, Dillon 1960-61, Kennedy 1964-67, Tokyo 1973-79, Uruguay 1986-93) culminating in the WTO’s establishment on 1 January 1995 with 128 members, rising to 144 by April 2002 after China’s entry as the 143rd member and Taiwan as the 144th.
• It quotes former Indian Foreign Secretary and GATT/WTO expert Muchkund Dubey (from ‘An Unequal Treaty: World Trading Order After GATT’, 1996) to argue that India cannot afford to remain outside the new trading system and should engage with transparency rather than treat the WTO as a ‘maha-bhayanak’ (monstrous) bogey.
• Successive chapters explain the WTO’s institutional architecture - Ministerial Conference, General Council, Dispute Settlement Body, Trade Policy Review Mechanism and specialised councils on goods, services and TRIPS - and contrast GATT’s toothless dispute system with the WTO’s binding, time-bound mechanism (“GATT had no teeth, WTO has teeth”).
• The booklet defends India’s continued WTO membership on the pragmatic grounds that exit would leave India isolated, force renegotiation of every bilateral trade relationship, and forfeit the gains India has already extracted at Doha (November 2001) on textiles, labour standards, the Singapore issues and special and differential treatment for developing economies.