The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes.

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organisation, playing a proactive role in India’s development process. Founded over 111 years ago, it is India’s premier business association, with a direct membership of over 6300 organisations from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 336 national and regional sectoral associations.

India has already signed Free Trade Agreements with various countries and is in process of signing with some others. This move has received varied reactions from industrialists as well as intellectuals. To discuss the issue thoroughly, the Confederation of Indian Industry organised a conference on ‘Free Trade Agreements (FTA) Building Strategic Partnerships on 9th November 2006 at New Delhi in India. The session was well attended by the bigwigs of the industries, intellectuals as well as media people. The discussion underlined on a number of concerns: how the free trade agreements are affecting the Indian industries, what should be the pace of implementation of free trade agreements, and on several issues closely associated with the interests of the country in general, and industries in particular.

Mr. R.V. Kanoria, the chairman of the CII WTO and Other Trade Agreements Committee and also Chairman of Kanoria Chemicals & Industries Ltd. gave a welcome address. This was followed by the address of the Chief Guest, a Secretary in Ministry of Commerce and Industry under Government of India, Mr. G K Pillai. The Secretary dwelt upon a number of subjects related to Free Trade Agreements. Mr. Pillai underlined that the domestic industries have not been appreciative of the changes in economic policies, and put protest against the changes. The domestic industrialists’ change has been brought about by compulsions; they themselves have not been prepared to receive the change.

India has actively been in negotiations with different countries regarding FTAs. The prominent among them is the negotiation with China. The process has evoked strong protests by different industrial forums. The common point voiced by the industrialists is that we are competitive in many segments and if free trade was allowed we would lose the comparable advantage. The second phase of negotiation for free trade agreement is going to be held when the Chinese President, Hu Jing Tao, is coming to India on 20th November 2006.

Apart from this, there were other presentations, made by different people. The Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Rahul Kuhllar discussed India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement at length, and described how the negotiations for free trade have been fruitful and going to be useful for both countries. But the negative picture of free-trade negotiation was emphasised by Dr. Veena Jha, Coordinator, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The industrialists representing different industries presented sectoral presentations like auto industry, textiles etc. One presentation underlined that after free trade negotiation with Thailand, the television rates have gone down because television sets can be easily imported now, but getting particles used for manufacturing imported would be a tough task.

Mr. Chandan Gokhaale from Reliance Industries Ltd delivered the vote of thanks. Mr Gokhale put across the view that while going for any negotiation abroad, the government should take into account the concerns of domestic industrial groups. On the occasion, a booklet titled ‘Indian Industry Suggestions for Negotiating Free Trade Agreements’ was launched by the chief guest. The end of the conference was followed by high tea.