Eminent NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul said on Tuesday taht Western nations must implement free trade regimes in their own countries to fulfill their responsibility towards the developing countries in the globalised scenario.
"Western nations have a responsibility to the developing world to fully implement free trade regimes in their own countries. The voices of vested interests must never be allowed to hold back the cause of free trade," he said while speaking on 'Globalisation and Its Effects on the Indian Economy' at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Calcutta.
Lord Paul, member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, said that by maintaining agricultural and textile subsidies and tariffs, the US and European Union were denying many countries the chance to maintain balanced trade accounts.
"Developed countries have acknowledged, time and again, from the Uruguay and Doha rounds of WTO (World Trade Organisation) trade negotiations to the UN Millennium Goals, that protectionism of wealthy countries is justified. Now is the time to act and remove the barriers of trade," he said.
Asserting that globalisation was an opportunity, especially for nations with a good human asset base, he said India needed to carry on its economic reforms to access larger markets and become a full player in the world economy.
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