World Bank chief Ajay Banga says India should prioritize trade opportunities over tariffs & more related News Here

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga (Photo-AP)

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga on Thursday said India should “think less” about tariffs and focus more on opportunities to expand trade, as geopolitical tensions continue to cloud the global trade outlook.Speaking to the media during a visit to the Central Tool Room and Training Center (CTTC) in Bhubaneswar, Banga pointed to India’s growing engagement through trade agreements, PTI reported, and said the country has signed over 100 regional and bilateral agreements in the last two decades, a prime example of which is the recently concluded India-EU Free Trade Agreement.

“Think less about tariffs and think more about the opportunities like the (FTA) you (India) have with the EU,” he said. He stressed that all trade deals are important in the emerging global scenario.Highlighting changes in global commerce, Banga said world trade has quadrupled in the last 20 years, while the share of emerging markets has doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. “If you look at how trade has changed in the last two decades, global trade has quadrupled, while the share of emerging markets has doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Therefore, emerging markets like India have now become major components of global trade,” he said.India and the European Union recently announced the conclusion of negotiations for the long-pending free trade agreement, often described as the ‘mother of all deals’. Under the agreement, 93 per cent of Indian shipments will get duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while imports of luxury cars and wines from the EU will become cheaper.The agreement, finalized after nearly two decades of negotiations, will create a market of nearly 2 billion people, bringing together India, the world’s fourth-largest economy, and the European Union, the second-largest economic bloc.