India has formed a coalition of nine countries—India, S. Africa, Bolivia, Cuba, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, Tunisia, and Malawi—in order to place special provisions for developing countries and tackle high farm subsidies in developed countries. Another reason cited for this coalition is that global trade talks have digressed to new issues like e-commerce and investment, etc.
As per an official of the coalition, its paper had developments at its core, which had been neglected in developed countries. It had proposals highlighting the asymmetries in WTO agreements, which no country could shy away from. The countries have suggested preservation of consensus decision-making in the WTO. They have also called for reaffirming special and differential treatment (S&DT), which are special provisions for developing countries that give them more time to implement agreements, includes measures to increase trade opportunities, allows them to safeguard their trade interests and build capacity to deal with disputes. Some developed economies like USA and Canada have questioned the eligibility of developing countries to use these special provisions.