How Piyush Goyal bowed to Trump while playing cowboy with China

At the WTO talks in Yaounde, Cameroon, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal did the unthinkable. He quoted Mahatma Gandhi to justify blocking a Chinese-led initiative while simultaneously handing over to Donald Trump’s America almost everything it demanded. This is selective courage of the cynical kind.

“Drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi ji's philosophy of truth prevailing over conformity, India showed the courage to stand alone on the contentious issue of the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement,” Goyal proclaimed.

A standing ovation for saying no to a Beijing-led proposal backed by 130 members. But where was this Gandhian resolve when the American bulldozer came knocking?

America's twin agenda

Let me spell out the ugly reality that the ministry’s press releases won’t reveal: when it came to extending the moratorium on levying customs duties on electronic transmissions — a disastrous policy that ought to have been terminated at the 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaounde — India did not stand alone. India folded. It showed its true colours.

A standing ovation for saying no to a Beijing-led proposal backed by 130 members. But where was this Gandhian resolve when the American bulldozer came knocking?

The United States arrived in Yaounde with two stated purposes. One, kill any meaningful outcome on agriculture and the permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programmes that 800 million poor Indian farmers depend on. Two, secure by hook or by crook a permanent moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions.

Also Read: Surrender or stand? Modi government faces a WTO acid test

Not because this benefits global trade. Not because it helps developing nations. But, as former South African Trade Minister Rob Davies put it with brutal honesty, because the moratorium is primarily designed to serve the GAFA behemoths — Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.

E-commerce duties

Let that sink in. India’s Commerce Minister played Gandhian rebel against a Chinese investment facilitation proposal while playing obedient disciple to an American ultimatum that enriches Silicon Valley billionaires at the expense of Indian farmers.

The Americans killed the permanent solution for PSH programmes. Dead. Buried. Not even a funeral was held.

And now, thanks to India’s munificence — yes, munificence, the word means generosity, but here it reads as capitulation — Washington is on the verge of securing a five-to-ten-year moratorium on e-commerce duties. What did India get in return? Absolutely nothing on PSH. Zero. Zilch.

India’s farmers, the sacrificial goat

The central question is so obvious it screams for an answer: Why did Goyal not insist on blocking the e-commerce moratorium as leverage to secure the permanent solution on PSH?

The American farm lobbies are on a warpath against public stockholding programmes. Goyal knows this. Every trade official knows this. It was the only bargaining chip India had. And yet, he ensured a surrender on the e-commerce moratorium while securing nothing on the PSH programmes that are so crucial for 800 million poor Indian farmers.

Also Read: India to sign US trade deal after new tariff framework is finalised: Commerce Secretary

After the United States killed any outcome on agriculture on the penultimate day of the conference, what did India do? Issue a proposal. A proposal! For continuing discussions. For public consumption. For the headlines back home. A piece of paper that will go exactly nowhere while American trade officials board their flights back to Washington, laughing all the way.

So the Indian stand — to agree to an American ultimatum and settle on five years (4+1, as the insiders say) and perhaps another five years at the cost of sacrificing poor Indian farmers — vindicates what? That India can submit. That India will submit. That when Trump demands, New Delhi delivers.

And it gets worse. Much worse.

Moratorium on TRIPS complaints

Washington is also bent upon killing another Indian demand: extending the moratorium on not raising complaints or trade disputes on intellectual property issues under the TRIPS Non-Violation and Situation Complaints.

The Indian stand to agree to an American ultimatum vindicates what? That India can submit.

Here again, Washington adopted a hardline stance of “my way or the highway” on the last day in Yaoundé. These two moratoriums — one on e-commerce duties, one on TRIPS complaints — have been interconnected since 1998. Extended on a biennial basis since the WTO’s second ministerial conference in Geneva. But now, the US has changed course so radically that they want a permanent moratorium on e-commerce transmissions. A demand that is not acceptable to many developing countries.

Also Read: Trump-Modi friendship helped seal India-US trade deal: US Envoy

Behind the scenes, the US is pressuring the African Group with an explicit threat: we will extend AGOA (the African Growth and Opportunity Act) only if you agree to a permanent moratorium. This is not diplomacy. This is extortion. Under duress, the African Group is apparently going to agree to a four-year moratorium on e-commerce in return for a concession on AGOA — a duty-free tariff scheme for Sub-Saharan African countries. Divide and conquer. The oldest colonial playbook in existence, and India is helping the Americans run it.

On the TRIPS moratorium, India actually circulated a draft ministerial statement on March 28, proposing continued examination of the issue and a simple continuation of the status quo. Even a two-year extension — just two years — is not acceptable to Washington. They told India and Colombia flatly: no. My way or the highway.

So let me lay out the full picture of what just happened at MC14.

Hypocrisy of foreign policy

India blocked a Chinese initiative on investment facilitation — an initiative that 130 members supported, an initiative that is procedurally and systemically in consistent with WTO rules.

But on the American demands — the e-commerce moratorium that hurts domestic taxation capacity and digital sovereignty, the killing of PSH that hurts 800 million farmers, the rejection of TRIPS extensions that hurts access to medicines and technology — India surrendered. Surrendered without a fight. Surrendered without securing a single concession.

This is not foreign policy. This is hypocrisy on an industrial scale.

Also Read: US warning on India trade and Russian oil imports sparks debate | AI With Sanket

If we are living in the real world, then the choice is simple and brutal: either accept the e-commerce moratorium and the incorporation of IFDA into the WTO’s rule book, or block both the American and Chinese initiatives on an equal footing. Anything else is a grand show of genuflection towards Uncle Sam while posturing as a fearless resister of Chinese expansion.

But New Delhi has chosen a third path: resist China when it costs nothing, submit to America when it costs everything. Stand alone against Beijing for the cameras. Stand down against Washington for the backroom deals.

Double standard

The farmers of Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu are not fools. They see what is happening. Their public stockholding programmes — their lifeline, their buffer against hunger and price volatility — were sacrificed so that Google and Amazon can continue to ship digital services across borders without paying a single rupee in customs duty. Their future was traded for American applause.

New Delhi resists China when it costs nothing, submits to America when it costs everything. Stand alone against Beijing for the cameras. Stand down against Washington for the backroom deals.

And for what? For a Facebook comment beginning with Jai Shreeram? For a press release quoting Gandhi? Mahatma Gandhi’s truth did not prevail over conformity in Yaoundé. What prevailed was India’s willingness to submit to multilateral American priorities while pretending to stand up to China.

Also Read: US wants to 'put itself first' in trade deal with India: 'Not here to do charity'

The truth is this: India is ready to surrender the interests of hundreds of millions of its farmers while turning its back on a Chinese initiative that, whatever its flaws, at least had the virtue of being opposed on principle rather than on allegiance. Until New Delhi learns to say no to Washington with the same vigour it says no to Beijing, the world will see this for what it is — not courage, not conviction, but a cynical double standard dressed in nationalist clothing.

Either block both, or accept both. Everything else is just theatre. And the Indian farmer just paid for the tickets.

(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal.)