Trade pact norms to be spelt out

Template by PM's panel

The trade and economic relations committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today decided to set guidelines for future trade negotiations and enhancing investment inflows in the country.

"The Prime Minister has reviewed various trade agreements, which are proposed and are under discussion, and set guidelines for future trade agreements," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told reporters after a two-hour meeting of the committee.

Nath said reports of experts on various trade agreements and investment proposals would be considered and a road map prepared to study future trade agreements and arrangements.

He said studies would be undertaken for further negotiations of trade agreements and trade arrangements, and to assess its impact on industries.

Nath said these studies would be conducted as a prelude to "our future investments".

Besides Nath, the meeting was attended among others by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Chairman of the National Manufacturing Competitive Commission VS Krishnamurthy, Economic Affairs Secretary Rakesh Mohan and Commerce Secretary SN Menon. This was the second meeting of the committee.

During the previous meeting held last fortnight, the Prime Minister, who is the chairman of TERC, had said economic relations had come to increasingly influence strategic engagement and "India's economic interaction with the world is still relatively limited and this must increase".

Singh had also called for greater inter-ministerial dialogue and coordination in this regard. The TERC was set up to function as a new institutional mechanism for evolving policies on bilateral economic relations.

While External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, Chidambaram, Nath, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and National Security Adviser MK Narayanan are among the members of TERC, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister TKA Nair is the convenor of the committee.

The TERC will coordinate the preparatory work on the strategy on economic relations with India's major economic partners, neighbours and regional economic groupings.

The committee is authorised to commission specialised studies, suggest mechanisms for promoting economic cooperation and suggest the extent of economic engagement with identified countries and examine proposals for bilateral economic coordination.