India wants transnational oil and gas pipelines to be included in the WTO’s trade facilitation measures which aim at cutting red tape and other obstacles in the flow of goods across borders.

“It is sought to include pipelines in the definition of Traffic in Transit as fixed infrastructure for passage of goods,” says a government paper that outlines the possible strategy for talks with Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation.

Traffic in Transit implies movement of goods and means of transport (other than aircraft) across the territory of the country, where both the starting and the terminating point of the journey lies beyond it.

“This is important as member countries like Bangladesh have shown lack of commitment in entering into a treaty for providing transit route to Indian goods, including Myanmar-India gas pipeline, through their land forcing India to consider other circuitous and uneconomical options,” rationalizes the paper.

Equally important is the gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan, it says. “A detailed framework is required to minimise the transit risk through these countries and a multilateral (inter-government) treaty, such as the Energy Charter Treaty, may eventually be warranted,” it adds.

What New Delhi wants is that it should be obligatory for a country to provide the same level of security to a transiting pipeline as it would have provided to its domestic pipeline.

Moreover, access to any international player should be in line with the domestic regulatory regime with the government retaining the right to reject any transiting pipeline on security considerations.

... contd.