IACC meet to discuss Cola controversy

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) Even as Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said the row over residual pesticides in Pepsi and Coke would not impact the foreign direct investment into India, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) will be organising an economic summit on the issue.

The ban on colas and its likely impact on the FDI flow into the country will be discussed at the 3rd Indo-US Economic Summit to be held under the auspices of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) next month.

''IACC is convinced that to promote business synergies and to build on that, there should be a higher degree of accommodation and every decision should be taken in its totality after a thorough discussion with the stakeholders. We have to avoid knee-jerk reactions and ad-hoc decisions to cement the investment relations between the two countries'', said IACC President B Prabhakar while reiterating his stand that the Cola ban will send wrong signals to the global investors.

Earlier, Mr Nath said the Cola controversy would not have any impact on the FDI inflows into the country. ''Whenever anything like this happens it affects the credibility of India. Obviously people start thinking twice,'' he told reporters.

''This is not the case here but we have to be careful about it,'' he added.

The summit, which will have participation of a strong contingent of investors and businessmen from the US and India, will devote time for evolving a pragmatic approach for facilitating two-way investment in diverse segments like manufacturing, real estate, civil aviation and engineering drawing.

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