The Hindu : Business : India and EU considering CECA, says Kamal Nath

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Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006

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India and EU considering CECA, says Kamal Nath

Special Correspondent

Report to be tabled at the forthcoming Helsinki summit

— Photo: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

STRENGTHENING THE BOND: Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath (left), with Minister for Economics and Technology, Germany, Michael Glos (centre), and President of FICCI, S. K. Poddar, at a seminar in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will discuss the prospects of a free trade pact with the European Union at the forthcoming India-EU summit in October. This was stated here on Tuesday by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath after a meeting with the German Economics and Technology Minister Michael Glos.

India and the EU had set up a high level group to consider the possibility of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, covering trade in goods, services and investments, which is expected to submit its report during the summit in Helsinki.

Mr. Kamal Nath also said India remained committed to strengthening the multilateral trading system and would work with the EU to find convergence in trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO). While urging developed countries to remove distortions in agricultural trade, he said he was realistic about the WTO rather than either optimistic or pessimistic.

The Minister also sought greater cooperation with Germany, especially in the small and medium enterprises sector. He said Indo-German trade was growing at about 20 per cent every year and was set to cross 10 billion Euros this year from about five billion euros three years ago. Mr. Glos, who described India as an emerging power, offered products and technologies to Indian companies in areas such as high-end engineering, defence and counter-terrorism.

Earlier, addressing a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr. Kamal Nath called for closer trade and economic engagement with Germany, especially in infrastructure, IT, bio-technology, pharmaceuticals and the automobile sector, to achieve the bilateral trade target. He maintained that synergy with Germany's technology and India's workforce, which was the economic architecture of the future, was going to form the basis of the new partnerships.

He urged German SMEs to invest and engage with Indian mid-sized firms. "We are particularly happy to note that visits to India by German SMEs have increased. SME links have to be strengthened. They should find outsourcing to India a competitive option,'' he said.

Mr. Glos is accompanied by a high level German business delegation which is visiting this country to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

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