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Panel Discussion - PTAs and India: Where are we and where to go?
January 29, 2008, New Delhi

A panel discussion on PTAs and India: Where are we and where to go?, was held on Tuesday, January 29, 2007 at Conference Room II, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, to take stock of the progress in Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), both bilateral and regional, signed so far and likely to be sign in near future by India and to assess the likely effects of such arrangements and also those by other countries than India on the domestic economy. The objectives of this panel discussion were to look into:

• The role of PTAs in promoting trade: political economy of PTAs;

• The impact of proliferation of PTAs on world trade: multilateralising regionalism;

• The structure of PTAs: shallow vis-à-vis deep integration processes;

• India’s approach towards PTAs: political and economic aspects; and

• Possible impact of other PTAs (than those with which India is engaged) on India.

Besides government officials and academic experts, representatives from business, civil society, international institutions, foreign missions and media were invited to take part in this deliberation. The event took stock of political and economic relevance of India’s increasing engagement with PTAs and serving CUTS in developing a comprehensive work programme on political economy and empirical research on PTAs and India.

It was a half-day event – 9.30 AM to 1.30 PM, followed by lunch.

• Backgrounder
• Agenda
• Report