Before becoming a signatory to the contentious government procurement agreement (GPA) in the WTO, India would seek to reach a consensus with all its stakeholders, a senior government official in the commerce ministry told FE. He said India had opted to be an observer in the GPA talks in the WTO without making any commitments.
?Our position is clear that we will have to reach a consensus from all stakeholders involved before taking a final call,? he said. Over the last one-week senior officials from the WTO have been trying to nudge New Delhi to finally ratify the GPA clause as per which India would have to open its door to foreign companies in government procurement. ?We have to take the complete picture into account before committing ourselves to GPA,? the official source said.
On Tuesday member of the WTO secretariat Robert Anderson urged India to finally become a part of the $1.6-trillion GPA market which would benefit India immensely. ?Do not underestimate India?s ability to compete in the world procurement market. It (signing the GPA) would become throw open tremendous opportunity for Indian suppliers,? he said.
Anderson said GPA would also protect the country from any protectionist tendencies by developed countries. Citing the example of the US government?s ?Buy America? policy, he said if India has been a signatory to the GPA then it would not have been unduly impacted, since the US legislation had exempted GPA-signatory countries from the 2% tax clause.
However, weighing his words carefully, Anderson also warned India that to remain non-committal in GPA for long could lead to opportunity costs for New Delhi. ?Firstly, India will forgo the trade benefits that would accrue as a result of GPA and secondly would lose the growth momentum,? he said.