India Asks WTO To Address New Trade Barriers By Developed Nations Including COVID Passports, Vaccine Discrimination

India has raised the issue of new trade barriers being imposed by some developed countries including vaccine discrimination and COVID passports, saying that they impacting movement of persons and services exports, reports Economic Times.

Taking up these issues at a meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last week, India said that the global trade body should address the "new and emerging" trade barriers.

It should be noted that India has been pushing for relaxation in intellectual property rights to facilitate access to COVID medicines.

"WTO response should not only try to address the existing trade barriers like export restrictions, but also address new and emerging ones, like vaccine differentiations or Covid passports," India's representative was quoted as saying at an informal meeting of the heads of delegations, ahead of a key ministerial conference (MC12) of the WTO in December.

According to the report, India also defended export restrictions at WTO and said they were a legitimate policy tools available with the members of the global trade body.