Cameron meets PM, broaches India-EU free trade pact

New Delhi, Sep 6 (UNI) Mr David Cameron, leader of Britain's main opposition, the Conservative Party, today called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was understood to have suggested a EU-Indian free trade pact if the crippled Doha round of global trade negotiations failed to take off again.

During the luncheon meeting held at the official residence of Dr Singh at 7 Race Course Road, Mr Cameron said his party wanted a new special relationship between India and Britain.

Expressing support for India's efforts to have regional trade arrangements, especially with ASEAN, as part of the move towards an Asian Union, the British leader was understood to have called for keeping a stand-by mechanism for New Delhi's trade with the rest of the world just in case the WTO negotiations could not be concluded successfully.

This could be done by going for a free trade arrangement with the European Union, he suggested.

Dr Singh was believed to have evinced keen interest in the suggestions made by the British opposition leader.

Mr Camerons four-day visit is taking place amid the latest popularity survey in the UK which shows him as frontrunner, ahead of Prime Minister Tony Blairs Labour Party.

The British leader was in Mumbai yesterday, visiting a call centre and India's biggest software services company, TCS, incidentally the largest Indian investor in the UK.

Mr Cameron is on record, urging the Indian government to open up the country's markets further as high barriers are proving to be an impediment to foreign investment in financial services and retailing.

The WTO talks have failed to put in place a treaty by 2004 as planned to dismantle barriers and use trade as a boost for lifting the economies of developing countries and reducing poverty. The talks were stalled in June this year on the issues of industrial tariffs, services and farm subsidies.

India is unwilling to make any compromise on farm subsidies, particularly at a time when farmers trapped in debt are committing suicide.

New Delhi and other developing countries want the US and the EU to bring forward fresh proposals, especially on cutting local farm subsides in the US, for the revival of the Doha round.

UNI SN SK HT1825