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SAPTA hasn’t worked, but Indo-Thai FTA looks good: Vajpayee
Agencies - Bangkok
The Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee has regretted
that the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement languished because of
the “unreasonable obstructions” of one country, an indirect reference
to Pakistan, but expressed confidence that the proposed India-Thailand Free
Trade Agreement would be successful in meeting its objectives.
“The India-Thailand FTA looks like it will work,
while the South Asia Preferential Trading Arrangement has not seen real progress
solely because of the unreasonable obstructions of one South Asian country,”
Mr Vajpayee told a local newspaper ‘Nation’ in an interview.
He said deepening and broadening all-sided ties between
India and Thailand would serve as a factor for prosperity, stability and peace
in Asia besides being mutually beneficial. Referring to India’s increasing
trade with the ASEAN, Mr Vajpayee noted that India’s business dealings
with the region had gone up from US$ 3.5 billion in 1991 to US$ 12.5 billion
in 2002. “It looks like it may even exceed US$ 15 billion in the next two
years,” he said.
He added that business analysts felt that if some problem
areas were sorted out, trade between the ASEAN region and India could double
to US$ 30 billion in the next few years with agriculture, pharmaceuticals, information
technology and a variety of manufactured products contributing to the growing
trade.
Referring to the collapse of Cancun trade talks, Mr
Vajpayee said the breaking down of the talks was disappointing, but “it
is not the end of the road in the search for a rule-based multilateral trading
system.”
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