Identifying Mutual Interest Areas at WTO: A Sino-Indian Joint Perspective

China and India, in spite of being signatory members of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1948), witnessed a dissimilar experience in the arena of multilateral negotiations and trade. China lost its membership after the withdrawal of Taiwan from GATT in 1950, but gained steady access in the global market since the late 80s. India, on the other hand, in spite of maintaining the membership of GATT never focused on export promotion strategies before late 80s. Both the countries expect further growth in their exports in coming future, as the tariff and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in member countries are likely to go down in the post-transitory phase of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which started from 1 January 2005 onwards. However the WTO-compatibilities of several domestic policies of both China and India have been questioned by their trade partners on various occasions and the debate is likely to continue in the future. Moreover, the exports of both of them are subject to various NTBs in principal markets, which are likely to intensify in the coming days. This bears serious implications on the export potentials of the two countries. Considering the domestic policies of China and India as well as the barriers on them, this article attempts to identify material and institutional areas where the two countries could jointly negotiate at the multilateral forum. It argues that collective bargaining by the two countries on key issues is likely to provide them an edge in future negotiations.