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HYDERABAD, June 20

THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Friday called for simplification of procedures, reduction of cost of capital and removal of all hassles to enhance global competitiveness of Indian products and services in order to increase its share in the world trade.

In his opening remarks at the inaugural of two-day `Emerging trends in international trade and finance' here today, Mr Ramesh Datla, Vice-Chairman of CII (Andhra Pradesh), said India's share in the $6.5-trillion global trade was just 0.8 per cent, while the developed countries held 70 per cent. The two-day national seminar is being organised by the CII in association with the Nizam College.

Thanks to the World Trade Organisation, developing countries were becoming more and more closely linked to industrial countries through trade and financial linkages, Mr Datla said and added that "there is an increasing similarity between the industrial structures".

He, however, was cautious about the phenomenon. "These forces of global integration might result in uniform fluctuations in business cycles," he observed.

He felt that domestic and international financial liberalisations heightened the risk of crises if they were not supported by "prudential supervision and regulation and appropriate macroeconomic policies."

"Import quotas were eliminated and tariffs lowered as a result of liberalisation. But emergence of technical trade barriers proved to be serious impediments to trade, creating an overall negative trading environment," Mr Datla pointed out.

Mr S Narayanan, the former Indian Ambassador to WTO, said there was a feeling that the benefits of globalisation were not being shared equally. "There is a feeling that the powerful Western countries are resorting to protectionist measures," he said, alluding to the demands that the same set of rules should be applied to all.

Stating that WTO is a rule-based negotiating forum, he said, "It's not correct to blame WTO for all our domestic problems."

"Each country tries to push its interests. We too can to do that," he said, asking the industry associations and academic institutions to give inputs to the Governments to strengthen its arms at the negotiating table.

Delivering the special address, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, Governor, AP, said India was a leading exporter in the ancient period, but lost out to others "as were not able to keep pace with the changing developments."

"Only those with the ability to compete globally can survive," he said.

Mr Shahid Ali Khan, former deputy director general of World Intellectual Property Organisation, said it was time stop copycatting. "People like Mr Anji Reddy are showing the way in acquiring intellectual property by investing on R&D," he said and added the country was doing well in films, publications, software and music industries.

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