Who is Anwar Hussain Shaik? Indian Representative to Chair WTO Committee after 10 years

Anwar Hussain Shaik has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade under Council for Trade in Goods at the World Trade Organisation. He is the first Indian representative to chair the committee after 10 years. 

The WTO Councils and committee officially elect their own chairperson and each committee has its own procedures. The Council for Trade in Goods directly appoints the Chairperson of the Working Party on State Trading Enterprises. However, informal consultations are held to ensure there is consensus to enable a good distribution of appointments over all the bodies.

The WTO members reached the informal consensus on May 23, 2022 on the slate of names of the chairpersons for 14 subsidiary bodies. Goods Council Chairperson Etienne Oudot De Dainville (France) thanked members for their constructive spirit in reaching a consensus before the 12th Ministerial Conference on 12-15 June.

First time after 10 years an Indian representative - Anwar Hussain Shaik - has been appointed to chair the Committee of Technical Barriers to Trade (at World Trade Organization)

— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2022

WTO Council for Trade in Goods: List of Names of Chairpersons 

Committee on Agriculture: Marcel Vernooij (Netherlands)

Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices: Juan Carlos Estrella (Ecuador)

Committee on Customs Valuation: Frank Rittner (Germany)

Committee on Import Licensing: Jia Jie Loh (Singapore)

Committee on Market Access: Kenya Uehara (Japan)

Committee on Rules of Origin: Laura Gauer (Switzerland)

Committee on Safeguards: Maryam A. AlDoseri (Kingdom of Bahrain)

Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Tang-Kai Wang (Chinese Taipei)

Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures: Kerrlene Wills (Guyana)

Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade: Anwar Hussain Shaik (India)

Committee on Trade Facilitation: Amb. Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid (Nigeria)

Committee on Trade-Related Investment Measures: Débora Ponce de Günther (Guatemala)

Committee of Participants on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products: Hazrul Imran Azahar (Malaysia)

Working Party on State Trading Enterprises: Mr Agustín Navarro de Vicente-Gella (Spain)

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What is WTO?

The World Trade Organization is a global international trade organization that deals with the rules of trade between nations. The main objective of the organisation is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

WTO General Council

• The General Council is the highest-level decision-making body of the World Trade Organisation. The council meets regularly to carry out the functions of the body.
• The council comprises representatives from all member governments and the current chair is Switzerland Ambassador Didier Chambovey. 
• The council has the authority to act on behalf of the ministerial conference which only meets about every two years. 

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