The Hindu Business Line : `Identify sectoral strengths to gain from multilateral trade talks'

THE Union Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, has asked the Indian industry to identify the sectoral strengths for the future to enable the trade negotiators to obtain the best possible outcomes for the country in multilateral trade talks.

He also urged the industry to come up with the names of the sectors where India could command global competitiveness and leadership positions by say 2025. Further, the Minister underscored the need to identify industry sectors where the country could even negotiate for a zero-for-zero tariff regime.

Addressing a seminar on `WTO's framework agreement: Implications for Indian business', organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Kamal Nath maintained that India had gained from the recent WTO framework agreement of July 31, 2004, which would form the basis for further negotiations in the Doha Round.

"India has gained significantly from the framework agreement if one were to read every line of the agreement. It's very easy to say that this is not so", he said.

Some of the Opposition parties, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been contending that India has failed to extract firm commitments from developed countries even while giving away many concessions.

In his address at the seminar, Mr Kamal Nath sought "ideas" from the industry to address their concerns on the inverted duty structures. "We are grappling with it (problems of inverted duty structure) and we need ideas from you," he said.

Further, the Minister assured the industry that the Government was ready to hold more consultations with them on the matter of free trade agreements (FTAs), regional trade agreements (RTAs) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to take on board their concerns about such agreements.

This assurance came after a top official from a leading private sector company in the textile industry highlighted that India is trying to firm up a comprehensive trade agreement with Singapore in 18 months when the US took nearly 18 years to sign a similar agreement with Singapore.

Asked whether the G-20 countries will continue to hold together, Mr Kamal Nath pointed out the loud voice of G-20 was listened to with attention at Geneva and that the effectiveness it demonstrated there was a good enough reason for it to stay together.