Plan to synergise all trade agreements

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said today the government wanted to formulate a strategy that could synergise multi-lateral agreements with regional, bilateral and free trade agreements (FTAs) and asked the industry to come forward with their suggestions in this regard.

"I plan to soon hold a session on FTAs, RTAs (regional trade agreements) and PTAs (preferential trade agreements). While we agree that the domestic industry needs a level playing field, we want build a strategy to see how the multi-lateral and regional, bilateral and free trade agreements can work in sync," Nath said, while addressing a session on the World Trade Organisation organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Inviting suggestions from industry, Nath said their views were important to build India's stance, as at present of the 154 trade agreements in the world, India had just one trade agreement with Sri Lanka.

Referring to his recent visit to Thailand, the minister said he was surprised that the local industry there was fearing a flood of Indian goods.

"I reassured them by saying that Thai goods, too, would be available in the Indian market," he said.

The minister admitted that there were aberrations in the present duty structure, which had to be rectified. "We are still grappling with the inverted duty structure in many areas. This has to be addressed," he said.

Commenting on the WTO framework agreement agreed to at Geneva, he said the agreement had spelled out "significant gains" for India.

"India has gained very significantly in this framework...One can see it by reading every single line of the framework," the minister said.

On agriculture, the minister said the country could adequately accommodate all its interests apart from gains in the form of specific commitment from developed countries to eliminate export subsidies by a specific end date and to reduce trade distorting subsidies by 20 per cent.

Nath said India had strongly resisted opposition and succeeded in getting the new issues of investment, procurement and competition off the table and added that the fourth issue of trade facilitation was "of benefit" to the country.

The minister said the decision to begin negotiations in trade facilitation was taken to provide hassle-free customs, which was important in wake of the high transaction costs faced by Indian exporters.