Rajesh AGGARWAL

Current assignment: Professor (Visiting) at Indian Council of International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India

I had a distinguished career of 39 years, retiring after working for the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva, Switzerland for 18 years (2006-2023) and the Indian Mission to WTO in Geneva for 5 years (2001-2006).

During last 23 years of my stay in Geneva, Switzerland I have been engaged in multilateral economic diplomacy, first as the Indian delegate to WTO engaged in negotiations during the Doha Round. As an Indian negotiator to WTO, I have negotiated on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines, trade in agriculture, technical and sanitary / phytosanitary barriers and other regulatory issues.

Subsequently as Chief of Trade Policy and Trade Facilitation in ITC (UN-WTO) I was responsible for conceptualising and implementing technical assistance and capacity building programmes aimed at supporting public-private dialogue on trade policy and attendant regulatory reform for enhancing export competitiveness. The programmes encompassed supporting developing and the least developed countries in WTO negotiations, ASEAN and the African regional integration, trade facilitation reforms, e-commerce and mainstreaming trade in services in national development strategies in keeping with evolving international trading environment.

More recently, during the Indian Presidency of the G20, I represented International Trade Centre (UN-WTO) as an international knowledge partner of the Presidency on trade and investment related issues related to SMEs.

I have published a paper titled ‘Dynamics of Agriculture Negotiations in WTO’ in the Journal of World Trade.(39(4): 741-761/2005. I also wrote a chapter titled `WTO accessions and the private sector` in the book published by the Cambridge University Press on ‘WTO accessions and trade multilateralism’ in 2015.

As part of ITC’s technical assistance programmes, I have contributed to developing numerous publications with the aim of bringing out the private sector niche in trade policy debates. The publications include National Trade Policy for Export Success, Mobilizing Business for Trade in Services, Business Guide on WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, and several others.

I have been, in the past, invited to speak on the WTO negotiations at various international fora including the FAO, Evian Group, ICTSD, Wilton Park, training courses offered by WTO, UN Institute of Advanced Studies, Case Western Reserve University etc.