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Article: NO CONTRADICTION BETWEEN FTAS AND MULTILATERALIASM: KAMAL NATH.
- Article from:
- AsiaPulse News
- Article date:
- March 23, 2006
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NEW DELHI, March 23 Asia Pulse - There is no real contradiction between Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) or Regional Trading Arrangements (RTAs) and the multilateral trading system of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as RTAs and FTAs are merely building blocs in the wider architecture of multilateralism, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said here on Wednesday.
Addressing a meeting organised by International Market Assessment (IMA), he said the number of RTAs have quadrupled since 1990 (from 50 to nearly 230) and another 60 agreements are under negotiation.
On an average, each country belongs to 6 RTAs; and about 40 per cent of world trade ...