India should prioritise trade opportunities over tariffs, says World Bank chief Ajay Banga

India should “think less” about tariffs and focus more on opportunities to expand trade, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said on Thursday, as geopolitical tensions continue to cloud the global trade outlook.

Interacting with media during a visit to the Central Tool Room and Training Centre (CTTC) in Bhubaneswar, Banga pointed to India’s growing engagement through trade agreements, noting that the country has signed more than 100 regional and bilateral pacts over the past two decades, with the recently concluded India–European Union free trade agreement as a key example, PTI reported.




“Think less about the tariffs, and more about the opportunities like you (India) have done (the FTA) with the European Union,” he said, stressing that all trade deals are important in an evolving global landscape.

Highlighting shifts in global commerce, Banga said world trade has quadrupled over the last 20 years, while the share of emerging markets has doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent.

“If you look at the way trade has changed over last two decades, the global trade has quadrupled, while the share of the emerging markets doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Therfore, emerging markets like India have now become key components in the global trade,” he said.

India and the EU recently announced the conclusion of negotiations for the long-pending free trade agreement, often described as the ‘mother of all deals’. Under the pact, 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 are set to become cheaper.

The agreement, finalised after negotiations spanning nearly two decades, will create a market of around 2 billion people, bringing together India, the world’s fourth-largest economy, and the EU, the second-largest economic bloc.