Trade ministers from G20 nations gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with agenda items spanning reforms to the multilateral trading framework, strategies for diversifying supply chains, global production capacity, and the broader rules governing international commerce.

At the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal put forward the position that attaching conditions tied to obligations selected by a subset of WTO members runs counter to the foundational principle of Most-Favoured-Nation treatment, as reported by a news outlet. During a discussion of the MFN principle, Goyal argued that the framework ought to deliver equivalent trading conditions for participants at both ends of the size spectrum. Maintaining that equilibrium, he argued, would build trust, foster predictability, and keep the multilateral trading system open to all participants.

G20 delegations were engaged in talks over trade distortions, industrial overcapacity, and the future architecture of multilateral commerce when the ministerial comments were made. Broadcasting outlets reported that India put forward the position that trade remedies targeting unfair practices ought to stay within the boundaries set by WTO frameworks, while nations at earlier stages of economic development should retain the flexibility needed to build up their industrial bases.

At a session focused on structural excess capacity and production, Goyal conveyed that trade-distorting support mechanisms operating within certain economies raise shared concerns about the potential for dumping and predatory pricing. Those concerns, the statement noted, are addressable through trade remedy tools that align with WTO rules — anti-dumping levies and countervailing duties among them — provided evidentiary grounding and judicial oversight underpin their application. Any remedial steps taken, the statement indicated, ought to proceed through agreed-upon multilateral frameworks rather than through unilateral action.

Goyal also pushed back against the G20 presidency's characterisation of certain sectors as carrying structural excess capacity within India. He described the country's economy as one oriented around internal consumer demand across a population of 1.4 billion, while arguing that manufacturing capacity on its own poses no inherent problem — difficulties tend to emerge, he argued, only when output clusters in particular locations as a result of concealed government support. Diversifying production and supply chains is a valid goal, he argued, provided it does not serve as cover for measures that fall outside WTO rules or place the weight of economic adjustment on developing nations.

Addressing the Most Favoured Nation principle, Goyal argued that the country's trade relationships rest on a foundation of openness and equal treatment for all partners. Among the positions he advanced was a push to reinstate the WTO's two-tier mechanism for resolving trade disputes, alongside protection of the preferential treatment afforded to nations still building their economies.

Goyal also restated India's position on the matter of forced labour within international supply chains. Invoking Article 23 of the Constitution, he pointed to India's ratification of ILO Conventions 29 and 105 as part of his argument. He stated that a revision to the Foreign Trade Policy, enacted in July 2026, introduced a ban on goods produced through forced labour.