‘No structural excess capacity’: Piyush Goyal calls for WTO-compliant trade remedies at G20 Trade Ministers’ Meeting

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called for a rules-based response to the latest developments in global trade. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties must be based on evidence and remain subject to judicial review, he stated.

Goyal, at the concluding day of the G20 Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Milwaukee, said India’s manufacturing sector serves both domestic and global demand and does not have structural excess capacity in the sectors identified by the G20 presidency.

He described India as the fastest-growing large economy, with a domestic-demand-driven economy serving 1.4 billion people, while also building manufacturing value chains from design to finished goods.

The commerce minister also highlighted that India shares concerns that trade-distorting support in some economies can result in dumping and predatory pricing.

Goyal, however, cautioned that industrial capacity alone should not be treated as evidence of a trade distortion. "Distortions can arise where geographical concentration of production is driven by hidden subsidies and support," the ministry note on Goyal’s address revealed.

Goyal also argued that diversification is a legitimate objective, but must not become a pretext for measures outside WTO rules or shift the cost of adjustment onto developing countries.

MFN and developing-country policy space

The commerce minister also defended the Most-Favoured-Nation principle, under which WTO members generally extend the same tariff treatment to all trading partners.

He said India’s trade with G20 economies depends on a transparent, non-discriminatory and rules-based system, and that MFN treatment ensures that "the same terms apply to the smallest trader and the largest trader."

Goyal also called for consensus-based decision-making at the WTO and the preservation of special and differential treatment, which gives developing countries flexibility to pursue development objectives.

He also sought restoration of the organisation’s two-tier dispute-settlement system, whose appellate function has remained impaired.

Forced labour and evidence-based action

Goyal said the country’s commitment to eliminating forced labour was absolute and pointed to Article 23 of the Constitution, as well as India’s ratification of International Labour Organization Conventions 29 and 105. He added that India amended its Foreign Trade Policy in July 2026 to prohibit imports produced using forced labour.

He also clarified New Delhi’s position, arguing that border measures must rely on specific, verifiable evidence rather than assumptions about entire countries, regions or sectors.