NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian finance minister Dr. Manmohan Singh last week dismissed opposition charges that the farmers would be hit by the Gatt agreement and asserted that India could derive immense benefits from the treaty if it followed a 10 year perspective plan to enlarge exports.
Admitting that the Gait treaty does not offer a perfect trading Opportunity for the developing countries like India Dr. Singh said that on a balance the agreement on multilateral trade was the best bet for the country to enlarge its basic economic space as against the possibility of having bilateral trade arrangements on tougher terms.
Dismissing most of the opposition criticism on the Gatt Treaty as a campaign of disinformation the finance minister asserted that there was nothing in the treaty that would come in the way of government following its policy of providing Subsidy to farmers and continuing With procurement and public distribution system.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 8, 1994
