FICCI pushes for Indo-US FTA excluding agriculture

Lalit K Jha

Washington, June 29 (PTI) Noting that achieving a
comprehensive free trade agreement between India and the
United States would take time because of sharp differences on
several issues involved, industry body Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has called for an
Indo-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) excluding the contentious
issues like agriculture.

"Instead of waiting for long, it is in the interest of
both the countries to move ahead with an FTA excluding
agriculture," FICCI President Harsh Pati Singhania said,
winding up his week-long US trip during which he met key
officials in the US Administration, Congressmen and business
leaders.

In fact, there are instances wherein the US has entered
into free trade agreement with countries excluding some of the
contentious issues like agriculture. Singhania said a
bi-partisan delegation of members of Parliament, who were here
in the US last week, meeting US lawmakers and government
officials also agreed with the FICCI viewpoint to push for a
Indo-US FTA excluding agriculture.

He was joined by FICCI general secretary Amit Mitra as
both held a series of meetings in Washington in an effort to
set the tone of Indo-US business relationship for the two new
governments for the next five years.

"If we have to look at FTA (between India and the US), it
has to be without agriculture, because of the subsidy
structure,” Mitra said as Singhania observed that otherwise it
would take a long time to arrive at an agreement on all the
points.

"Therefore, we should look for something, which can get
more tangible results in shorter period. That is why we are
talking about FTA excluding agriculture," Singhania said,
observing that agriculture negotiations would take a long
time, because of the political difficulties in both the
countries. "We found resonance," Mitra said.

Referring to the series of meetings he had with US
officials, Congressmen and business leaders, Singhania said,
"The impression we got is that if there is a political will,
this is doable." There is a larger objective to be served by
having such an agreement.

Singhania said it is time that India and the US move
beyond the obvious areas of cooperation into new areas.
Observing that civil-nuclear, energy and defence are the
obvious areas of cooperation between the two nations, he
strongly felt the need of India and the US identifying new
areas of cooperation like nano-technology, agro-biotech and
innovation.

"I think there was positive indication on the US side,"
Singhania said, adding that he also impressed upon the US
officials there something tangible must come out during the
next month’s India visit of the US Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton.

The FICCI delegation received a general feeling from the
US that certain kind of collaboration, which has been accepted
by both governments, should be heightened. For instance there
seems to be immediate willingness to look at hurdles, which
may be holding back a major jump in knowledge driven areas.

During their deliberation, FICCI delegation also raised
the issue of dual use technology and the Indian entities which
are still under US sanctions.

"If this can be done, FICCI estimates that the export
from the US to India can rise very significantly, because a
lot of export gets restricted because of this dual use
technology restrictions," Singhania said.

Post-nuke deal, the FICCI delegation emphasised India
should be given equivalent status as those given by the US to
G-8 countries. PTI LKJ
ANU