The Hindu : New Delhi Plan of Action to boost trilateral trade

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 06, 2004

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New Delhi Plan of Action to boost trilateral trade

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 5. In a significant development, India, Brazil and South Africa today decided to adopt a New Delhi Plan of Action to boost trilateral trade and promote South-South cooperation.

Announcing this, the Minister of External Affairs, Yashwant Sinha, said the plan would be on the lines of the Brasilia Declaration, which identified trilateral cooperation as an important tool for economic and social development.

Addressing captains of Indian industry at two interactive sessions with the Foreign Ministers of IBSA, organised by the FICCI and CII, he said the "New Delhi Plan will give a new dimension and direction to South-South cooperation."

Mr. Sinha said the IBSA planned to create a Trilateral Business Council to promote business-to-business exchange. He, however, said the Government could only work as a facilitator, and it was for the businessmen to take the lead.

"We can create a framework, but deals have to be done by the businessmen of the three countries. At the same time, it is essential to create awareness about the business opportunities in each other's countries."

"The posts have been created. It is there for you to play," Mr. Sinha said, adding that the CII would have to take the lead in initiating businesses between the three countries.

The Brazilian Government has initiated a Preferential Trade agreement between India and Mercosur. With this and SAFTA in place, India and Brazil can look at newer avenues of regional cooperation, the Minister said.

"The IBSA has agreed to work together in fighting hunger and poverty not only in the three member countries but all the developing countries."

Brazil is a key player of the Mercosur group, with which India has already signed a framework agreement that will lead to the conclusion of a preferential and, later, a free trade agreement.

Similarly, Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is involved in negotiations with Mercosur to conclude a free trade agreement and is also working towards negotiating a similar agreement with India. "We are trying to give a new shape to South-South cooperation, which has been ignored for long," said Mr. Sinha underlining that trade should be a tool for development for which business has to be weld together.

The Brazilian Minister of External Affairs, Celso Amorim, said the preferential trade agreement being worked out would gradually evolve into a free trade agreement "connecting large free trade areas spread across three continents."

He cited the example of Brazil's trade ties with Argentina that has moved from a preferential agreement to a free trade one.

The South African Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, said: "We hope to use the trilateral forum to deepen cooperation within our regions. We are looking forward to making this trilateral cooperation a long-term engagement."

She said that in order that the IBSA succeeds, businessmen of the three countries would have to play a key role.

"Without business, the IBSA initiative cannot succeed," she said.

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