Need to review free trade agreements, says CII chief S Gopalakrishnan.

NEW DELHI: While the government is pushing for an early completion of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union, India Inc has raised concerns about the pact and called for a review mechanism to assess all such bilateral trade agreements to safeguard the interests of domestic industry.

The new president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and executive co-chairman of InfosysBSE -1.03 % Technologies S Gopalakrishnan has also called for urgent electoral reforms ahead of the coming general elections and said a fresh approach is needed for public-private-partnerships (PPPs), where 'partnership' is now being replaced by an 'adversarial approach.

"I would like to propose a review mechanism to review the existing FTAs as this is essential to ascertain the impact on domestic industry and suggest amendments wherever required," Gopalakrishnan said, adding that bilateral trade pacts 'are ongoing, evolving' processes.

On the trade pact under negotiation with the EU that has triggered worries amongst several local industries from cheese to automobiles, the CII chief said that the industry is working with the government to resolve these concerns.

"We will give our inputs to government to evolve them as time goes on. These are pacts that can be negotiated or re-negotiated on an ongoing basis. Of course, the government has to make the final decision on how to handle these (concerns)," he said.

Besides, stressing the need for urgent electoral reforms, Gopalakrishnan said the government must immediately implement the recommendations of the Law Commission, the Election Commission and the judiciary, including the proposal to 'disqualify candidates at the entry threshold.'

"We must have transparent funding for political parties, impose a democracy cess and hold elections simultaneously for both parliament and states. This becomes more important this year," said the Infy co-chairman, referring to the upcoming state elections and the impending Lok Sabha polls.

"We have given a proposal with concrete steps for cleaning up elections to the government," Gopalakrishnan said.


Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com