Roundtable with Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia
WTO Appellate Body Member
and Former Permanent Representative of India to WTO
December 15, 2014

WTO Appellate Body Member and Former Permanent Representative of India to WTO Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia convened with GRF Members and a group of GRF Community members at a Roundtable on December 15th. During his speech, Mr. Bhatia stated that the world is now more interconnected than it has ever been and pointed at the necessity of global rule setting for multilateral trade. He expressed that congestions generated from WTO’s structural problems drove countries to seek alternative structures such as mega-regional agreements. However, Mr. Bhatia also stated that mega-regional agreements will not be able to act as global rule setters and cannot address concerns which need international coherence (e.g. climate change). Mr. Bhatia mentioned that WTO needs to be reformed to be an effective global rule maker and to remain relevant. Following his speech, Ambassador Bhatia received a wide range of questions from the participants.