The government on Friday said the country's economy was strong enough to sustain the free trade agreements entered into by India and asked the industry to create a strong resource base in order to offer "well-considered" proposals during future multilateral talks.
Addressing the first government-industry trade dialogue on the auto sector in New Delhi, special secretary in the ministry of commerce and industry S N Menon lauded India's free trade agreement with Sri Lanka as well as the upcoming BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation) agreement and said the country's economic indicators strongly favoured sustainability of these regional trade arrangements.
Speaking on the occasion, Albert T warner, director, United States Department of Commerce, said the regional trade agreements should be considered as a single bloc for greater leverage during multilateral trade talks.
The Asean arrangement, albeit triggered by the US intervention following the economic crisis in 1998, is better than the North American Free Trade Agreement as it was between economies of similar sizes and not as asymmetric as NAFTA, Hanumantha Charya, corporate economist, Hero Honda said.
Representatives of the automotive industry asserted India should develop sub-agencies to store database and provide investment consultancy.
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