CII Confederation of Indian Industry : Industry Needn’t Worry About Impact of TPP: Sitharaman

'There is nothing to worry about the adverse impact of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) on India. We have taken necessary steps to boost India's trade and investment in the wake of emerging new trade architecture', said Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry. She was addressing industry members on 'regionalism vs multilateralism: the future of global trade' at the 22 edition of CII Partnership Summit being held at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Ms. Sitharaman also highlighted that the real implementation of TPP has a long way to go as till date not a single TPP member has got it passed through their Parliament. The TPP is a US-led trade agreement involving twelve Pacific Rim countries concerning a variety of matters of trade and economic policy, which was reached on 5 October 2015 after 7 years of negotiations. 'There is nothing regional about TPP as countries are spread across different continents. This is an agreement involving a basket of countries', she further added.

The Union Commerce & Industry Minister re-iterated India's strong belief and commitment towards multilateral trading system, which transparent, equitable and supports consensus based decisions. In WTO each members irrespective of their size and socio-economic development has equal voting rights, which instills lot of confidence in them.

Ms. Sitharaman highlighted the strong performance of India in sourcing FDI. She statedthat while globally FDI flows havefallen by 16%, FDI inflow into India has seen a sharp increase of 38% last year. This speaks about the inherent strength of Indian economy and shows the impact of steps being taken by the incumbent Government.

The session was also addressed by her counterparts from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan, Malawi and Kuwait. The Minister of Commerce of Bangladesh Mr. Tofail Ahmed said that how US and other developed nations are discriminating against Asian LDCs while granting Duty-Free Quota-Free Market access. The Commerce Minister of Nepal Mr. Deepak Bohara emphasized the importance of further boosting regional economic cooperation in South Asia.

Earlier moderating the session, the President-Designate of CII Dr. Naushad Forbes called for adopting a more inclusive approach in regional trading arrangements, particularly for mega-FTAs. The session was also addressed by Mr. Shishir Priyadarshi, Director, Development Division, World Trade Organization. He said that the debate over multilateralism vs regionalism is no more relevant as in the current scenario both are going to stay. The challenge is how to make it a win-win situation for the large group of countries including small economies and LDCs.

VishakapatnamJanuary 11, 2016