India's Economic policy goes global

By agencies   |   Friday, 12 May 2006, 13:50 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Look East and Look West policies are pass?; the country is now looking for the ?best.? The focus of the country?s economic diplomacy may now shift to rope in big economies such as the U.S., European Union and Japan into the fold of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), something beyond Free Trade Agreements (FTA). The government now aims to sign CEPAs with big economies such as the U.S. and E.U., top officials said. It is understood that New Delhi has initiated dialogue with Washington in this regard. While FTAs are confined to trade in goods, the focus of the government has shifted in favour of Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) or CEPA, where bilateral economic ties include free movement of services as well as investments. So far, India has CECA with Singapore. Focus on major economies doesn?t mean that the earlier policies of Look East or Look West shall be abandoned. We expect to sign CEPA with Mauritius. Similar negotiations are on with countries such as Sri Lanka and Thailand. The India-Korea Joint Study Group has recommended a Korea-India CEPA covering a range of issues including trade in goods, trade in services, measures for trade facilitation, liberalization of investment flows and measures for promoting bilateral economic co-operation in identified sectors. A joint taskforce has been constituted to work on the task of developing a CEPA between the two countries, sources said