India submitted to the WTO General Council in its meetings held from 28 – 29 July 2009 a proposal to improve the regulatory aspects of the WTO. This proposal is based on the following 5 basic principles:

-         The integration of a database of non-tariff barriers in the database of customs tariffs.

-         Reactivation the committees of the WTO through the inclusion of the new elements in the agenda (such as controlling measures related to trade, create a small working group to discuss the commercial considerations, possibility to increase the number of regular meetings).

-         The secretariat of Regional Trade Agreements Committee will prepare a report containing a collected annual summary containing  results of discussions on the review of regional agreements.

-         Establishment a committee to review all the mechanisms that allow Member States to exempt the products of  LDC's quotas and tariffs.

-         - Guidance from Ministers about the need to apply the international standards of  SPS and TBT.

The countries’ positions with regard to the comments on the Indian proposal came as follows:

Egypt: Agreed on behalf of the African Group about the importance of  Indian proposal, but it is still under consideration by the African Group. .

United States: Noted that the Indian proposal contained some elements that miss clarity in terms of how they are implemented and their purpose, while some other elements may not be compatible with the already existing mechanism of the WTO.