FTA only if India slashes tarrifs: World Bank

NEW DELHI: World Bank said on Thursday the Indo-Asean free trade agreement would turn out to be a futile exercise unless India makes conscious efforts to lower tariffs and remove non-tariff barriers further.
"India has to bring down its tariffs drastically before it signs the FTA with Asean," Pursell said.
He cited the disparity in tariff regimes in India and Singapore and said the Asian tiger was already a free-trade zone while India is ranked second in terms of high tariff zones in the world.
He also said that India and other South Asian nations should opt for multilateral trade agreements instead of the unilateral and bilateral agreements.
While Secretary in PMO, S Narayan, asserted that there should be a standardised tariff and India was moving towards the Asean levels, the World Bank said implementation of trade reforms was slow.
Apart from high tariff, the World Bank listed a number of other factors that came in the way of trade liberalisation including political protectionism, non-tariff barriers, policies relating to export and agriculture.