CURRENT AFFAIRS for PCS, IAS, BANKS: Current Affairs for IAS Exams

G4 united for reforms in United Nations

India, Germany, Japan and Brazil will continue to push for comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, Foreign Ministers of the four countries who met on the sidelines of General Assembly resolved.
India was represented by Minister of State for External Afairs M.J. Akbar.
The Group of 4 (G4) wants permanent membership of the Security Council for themselves, and wide and far-reaching reform of the UN.
“More than 70 years after the founding of the UN, the Security Council also has to adapt in order to cope with the ever growing global challenges,” a joint statement by the four countries said.

The Indian-American community in the U.S. has launched a White House petition to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, days after a Bill in this regard was tabled in the U.S. Congress by two powerful lawmakers.
“This petition is important to the people of United States of America, India and many other countries which are continuously affected by Pakistan sponsored terrorism,” the petition said.
The campaign requires at least 1,00,000 signatures on the petition to qualify for a response from the Obama Administration.

The Centre is not considering any proposal to withdraw the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) status accorded to Pakistan as even without the move the level of bilateral trade is very low.
The MFN status was accorded in 1996 as per India’s commitments as a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
According to the MFN principle of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tarifs and Trade to which India is a signatory/contracting party —each of the WTO member countries should “treat all the other members equally as ‘most favoured’ trading partners.
According to the WTO, though the term ‘MFN’ “suggests special treatment, it actually means non-discrimination.”
In the wake of the deadly attack on Indian soldiers in Uri, an incident for which India is holding Pakistan responsible, there have been calls in India for tough action against its neighbour, including the revocation of the MFN status.
Bilateral trade between the two South Asian neighbours was just $2.6 billion in 2015-16 which represented a minuscule 0.4 per cent of India’s overall goods trade worth $643.3 billion in the same year.
The MFN concept is an integral part of the WTO agreements and is among the principles forming the foundation of the multilateral trading system.
As per the WTO, whenever a country brings down a trade barrier or liberalises a sector.