‘Free trade pact with US, Canada on cards’

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New Delhi, Jan 9 : Adding to its bouquet of free-trade agreements (FTA) with several countries, India on Wednesday said it was discussing such bilateral pacts with the US and Canada. New Delhi has also decided to increase the country’s global economic engagement to $550 billion from the present $450 billion.

The market-opening pacts with the US and Canada would be on the lines of trade agreements being negotiated with the EU and the Asean, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said.

“As a trading nation, India is now firmly established at the top table of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), irrespective of the outcome of the Doha Development Round, and bilateral trade agreements are currently in the pipeline with at least ten potential partners ranging from Asean, the EU, to the US and Canada,” Nath said at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ceremony here. “Currently, our global economic engagement is $450 billion and we have a target to take it to $550 billion,” he added.

Other than India, only North American Free Trade Area (Nafta), EU and China have sub-Cabinet level commercial dialogue with the US. With the US and India recording a trade turnover of more than $34 billion between January-October, 2007, both sides are keen on furthering a trade agreement dialogue.

At the recently held India Economic Summit here Nath had responded to a US Congressman’s suggestion for the introduction of a legislation in the Congress for both the nations to commence talks on an FTA, saying it needed to be examined. Besides, India is negotiating a bilateral trade and investment agreement, on the lines of a free-trade pact, with the EU.

India and Canada, with a $5 billion worth bilateral trade, had inked a Foreign Investment and Protection Agreement in June last year to ensure investor protection in each other’s market. Canadians have been pitching for a FTA with India to get more access to the latter’s market.