RTAs can supplement, complement multilateral trade: Kamal Nath
Bangalore, Jan 17 (UNI) Union Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath today said Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) can supplement and complement the multilateral trading system, besides contributing to peace and security in the regions.
The Minister's comments comes in the wake of WTO Director General Pascal Lamy's observations on the same platform that RTAs were not a substitute to multilateral agreements and they would fail in the long run.
Speaking at a plenary titled 'Multilateral Trade versus RTAs: Which Way to Go' at the CII Partnership Summit here, Mr Kamal Nath, however, made it clear that India's commitment to the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations and the WTO remained unchanged.
''In our view, the bilateral route that we have chosen is complementary to the multilateral process and would not derail the Doha round of negotiations. FTA and RTAs should be based on long term gains rather than short term benefits and should be a 'win-win' for stakeholders on both the sides,'' he said.
The Minister said such agreements should not be signed just for diplomatic reasons, but should act as a building block for ultimately evolving a fair, free and pro-development trading system.
UNI