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Journalism of Courage
The WTO may be against the country preferring bilaterals, but India on Monday made clear where its priorities lie. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday at the India Economic Summit that regional and bilateral agreements will be the building blocks of global trade over the next five years to a decade.
Nath said India is a signatory to 200 bilateral and regional trade agreements, and expects 60 to 70 per cent of global trade to be conducted through similar arrangements between nations.
“We have 200 regional and bilateral trading agreements. And I believe, 60 to 70 per cent of trade will be bilateral in the next five-ten years,” Nath said.
“I disagree with Panitchpakdi on how South-South trade, between developing nations, can grow under WTO. Multilateral trade cannot be the driver of South-South trade. SAFTA, SAARC, MERCUSOR and the other agreements that India has signed or is planning, these are economic agreements — let us not call them Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which is a misnomer,’’ the minister added.
