APEC membership will act as a global gateway for India's international trade

Aadhira Anandh | The Dollar Business

The membership of India into the Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation (APEC) will act as a global gateway for India's international trade and also will have larger benefits on the lines of globalisation, pitched business and policy leaders. “Joining APEC would open up large opportunities in India as India has the potential to deliver high quality trade to all the sectors,” said a source from the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). Former Australian Prime minister Kevin Rudd said that joining the 21-member group would be an essential for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative and it would also help in achieving his targets to increase exports to $900 billion and also provide 100 million jobs by 2020. During the visit of US president Barack Obama to India on the Republic Day, last year, he said that the APEC membership would support and also promote equal engagement from both governments and private sectors and also offer aid to deal with the unhitch that is between the policy and the business. “India has now extended its focus to the Asian region for international trade. They have also been extending their partnership agreement with Australia and New Zealand. India is trying to largely focus on all the trades and service which would provide a larger platform for it on the international fronts,” added the source. APEC is an initiative by Australia in 1989. The APEC members include the US, Russia, China, Australia and Japan. The committee represents 2.8 billion people and reckons for 57% of the world’s total gross domestic production and 47% of global trade. The organization had a deferment of new membership for a decade, which is now been removed. The host of the last years’ summit, Beijing had invited India to participate in it as an observer, however New Delhi did not attend the event the last year. Alyssa Ayres, the former US deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said that it was in a strategic interest of US for India to deepen it links to Asia. Talking about the delay in India getting into its membership, the source said, “Firstly India was interested in countries like North America to extend its trade. But now India had understood the fact that there are many other countries who have the potential for trade. So it could be noted as another major reason for the membership now. And it’s is also come to the notice that India has good potential to carry forward the trade with the ease for the same.”      

July 21, 2015 | 4:17 pm IST.