Time for Change

The Exim community should not be disheartened by the fact that India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries could not formalise a free trade agreement (FTA) owing to differences on the negative list.

In the past years several FTAs with India were up for questioning as critics thought that agreements with a couple of nations went against India’s interests. Rightly this time around, the Commerce ministry has assured India’s Exim Inc. that the country’s interests would not be compromised.

I agree that any FTA should not harm the interests of our local industry and the agreement should lead to investments and enhanced trade.

However, the government should also not waste time on lengthy negotiations. With the fate of the WTO talks hanging in uncertainty, FTA with our regional partners can be a good answer.

I feel a compromise formula must be reached so that both parties are in a win-win situation. It’s a shame that despite staying in the same region, we are still unable to sort out our differences. We should take the example of European nations which carry out 65 percent trade within themselves while in Asia we do only 5 percent trade. This figure has to increase if we are to receive global recognition.